


The King of Gallifrey

by Rachel7and13



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:54:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27837883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rachel7and13/pseuds/Rachel7and13
Summary: Rose, Jackie, and Jack have been captured while trying to get back to their earth. They end up nearly tortured and starved in jail on an unknown planet. They get saved by an unlikely hero, only to find themselves on the most unlikely of planets. Rose finally finds the Doctor, but why is he so different? Is it still the man she knows? Is he still the man she fell in love with?Major creative licenses are taken on classic who, and all doctor who lore.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 8
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

The floor was still frozen beneath her, as Rose shivered relentlessly. She abandoned her previous efforts to stay warm, no longer having the once simple strength to rub her arms, and clattering her teeth.

She still had no resemblance of time. For all, she knew it was either early afternoon or midnight. She tried telling time by when the guards brought them food, but they quickly stopped bringing little else but a cup of water for them each, and once a day at that.

Rose groaned and tried futilely to get comfortable on the hard, stone floor.

She sat leaning against the bare wall, her legs sprawled out in front of her. She felt like a statue, left to wither away and collect dust. Her clothing certainly seemed to agree with that. If she ever got out of there, she promised herself that she would chuck them out and never have to see them again. After all, they were beyond hope now and the only purpose left to them would be to remind her of how hungry, cold, and miserable she was.

Her hand was placed protectively over her aching stomach.

“How much longer are they expecting us to go on without food?”

She felt like she hadn’t said anything the entire day. Her voice came out in a croak from thirst and lack of use.

When they first arrived, it felt like all she did was complain about the unfairness of them being kept so in the dark. But now… she hardly had the strength to get up from her position on the floor.

Rose didn’t really expect an answer, she just felt like complaining because at least complaining felt like doing something, anything at all, other than just sitting there, weak, cold, hungry, and abused.

“Shh...” Jack said in response, “I think I can hear someone coming.”

Rose perked up slightly. It was hard to tell, but it was too soon for them to bring them more water, and no one ever came for anything else. When the guards switched shifts, they were so silent, unless you knew about it; you would never even notice the change.

Jack was right of course. Voices could be heard echoing down the long corridor before them. Rose thought she recognized one of them, but she knew she was imagining it. It would be impossible to recognize anyone on this foreign…wherever they were.

The door to the far left opened and bright light from the hall beyond flooded the room for only an instant before the door swung shut again, leaving them once more in the dim lighting of the jail cells and a fading impression of the room beyond seared into their vision.

Two figures walked in. One was tall, thin, and wearing a brown robe that covered the person from head to toe. Judging from the curves Rose guessed it was a man. His face was completely covered by the long hood he adorned.

The second man was short, hunched, and balding. His fingers kept twitching sporadically as he spoke in some language that Rose had never heard before.

That’s really odd, Rose thought.

Ever since her travels with the Doctor, she could understand any and all languages. Sometimes, mostly with written words, it took a while to kick in, but it always did in the end. So why couldn’t she understand them?

She wanted to ask Jack if he knew what they were saying, but she knew it was better not to draw attention to themselves. Although she couldn’t shake the sneaking suspicion that these strange men were there for them and not for any of the other many cells around them, all of which had gone eerily silent as the men came in.

The atmosphere changed at their arrival. The very air seemed to stand on edge and all the background noises that Rose had become accustomed to hearing, seemed to fade away into the backdrop. The only sound that could be heard was the conversation between the two men. Their voices echoed and clanged off the stone walls, making them sound louder and more imposing.

Rose wondered if they were the only ones there who couldn’t understand them. Maybe wherever Rose was now, the language the men were speaking was the native tongue?

Rose tentatively stood up and leaned against the cool bars, trying to get a better look at the newcomers.

Jack and her mother stood up too, joining her at the bars, also trying to get a better look. Rose caught her mother’s eyes but didn’t say anything. A look of understanding passed between them. A look that said, no matter what happens…

The tall man turned to the shorter one and said something. It was smooth to the ears and melodic to the tone. It was his voice though that made Rose stop dead in her thoughts. Her breath caught in her throat and she was finding it hard to think anything other than, no… it couldn’t be…

The hooded man walked closer to their cell. Rose, Jack, and Jackie all took an involuntary step backward as if that would prevent this cloaked figure from gaining access to them.

The shorter man rushed up and produced a large key from within his baggy robes. Robes that were red and like the taller man, went head to toe. But unlike the taller man, didn’t come complete with a face-concealing hood.

Instead of the key being placed into any sort of lock, there was a buzzing sound that reminded Rose of the sonic screwdriver the Doctor was so fond of.

It must have been a sonic device then, Rose summarized.

The door was pushed open and before any of them could think to even move, the hooded man walked inside and the red-cloaked bloke quickly locked them all in.

Maybe he was a prisoner as well? If he was though, he didn’t appear to speak English. Maybe he wouldn’t understand it either and they would have no way of finding out more about where they were.

She turned to face Jack, intending to try and find out his opinion of her thoughts, but she stopped before she said anything.

Jack was staring at the hooded man with unease. His knees were slightly bent and his muscles tensed. He looked every bit like an animal about to pounce.

Perhaps the hooded creature sensed this or perhaps not. All anyone knew was there was suddenly a sound filling the dungeon; A loud boisterous echo of a sound. It took a moment for Rose to place it as laughter.

It sounded strange and foreign in a dungeon. But most of all it sounded dangerous and mad. And that’s when the creature said in a voice a perfect mimic of her beloved Doctor, “Rose Tyler, still getting into trouble I see.”

Rose froze.

Was it even possible? Could it really be possible?

It seemed far too unlikely… and yet…

The man raised both his hands and Jack jumped in front of Rose to protect her as she was closest to the man. She hadn’t even realized she had moved at all. Her mother stood fearfully against the back wall, watching silently, her eyes wide, lips thin.

The hood lowered to reveal him, almost exactly the same as the last time she saw him. The only difference, his brown eyes didn’t have that haunted look, his shoulders seemed relaxed, and he somehow looked younger.

But his wild brown hair still stuck up in odd places. His toothy grin still made him look like a dazzling fool, and he was still as skinny as ever.

As if on autopilot, Rose pushed Jack aside and ran to him. The next thing she knew she was hugging him fiercely, and he responded in kind. She leaned into him, half falling from fatigue, half from shock. His arms appeared under her arms, supporting her.

He even smelled like the Doctor.

“Did you miss me then?” He asked cheerily.

Rose opted for a small sound that was a cross between a laugh and a hiccup.

“Is it really you Doc?” Jack asked, completely bewildered.

Before Rose was satisfied with ending the hug, she felt his body move away from her. She didn’t move though. She stood, her arms falling loosely to her side, her face staring at the spot the Doctor stood only a second ago. She tried to stay standing still, but she couldn’t avoid swaying.

“Jack my man! Still wrong as ever I see.”

There was a squelching sound and then she heard Jack say, “wow, I should randomly run into you all the time.”

The Time Lord laughed again. This time Rose recognized it for the wonderful and infectious sound it was.

She turned in time to see him walk over to Jackie and grab her in a hug.

“Oi, put me down now or you’ll be gettin’ a slap, you will.” But her tone lacked all malice and held only humor.

If the Doctor was here, prisoner or not, they knew he was the one person who could always get them out of just this kind of a mess.

He was still grinning like a mad schoolboy after his first kiss when he turned back to Rose. He walked gently over to her and took her hand. She felt steadier already.

She looked down at once. Her hand felt the small tingles it always did when he held her like that. Their hands fit so perfectly together like they were made to hold each other. He traced his thumb over her knuckles soothingly.

G-d she missed that!

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” he said flippantly.

“Right,” said Jack, clapping his hands together, clearly ready to get them dirty, well, dirtier. “What’s the plan?”

The Doctor looked confused for a moment.

“Plan? What plan? Who said we needed a plan?”

“You don’t have a plan?” Said Rose, feeling slightly crestfallen. But only slightly, because it was better to be trapped in a jail with the Doctor than without, any day, any time, any place.

“Who needs a plan, there are easier ways to open doors,” he said mysteriously, and turned to wrap his knuckles sharply on the bars, then said something in that funny loopy language again. 

The balding man came over to them, and then he and the Doctor seemed to share a brief conversation.

Rose glanced at Jack, who shrugged in response. He clearly had no idea what they were saying as well.

Did it have something to do with the Doctor being back as to why the translation was no longer working?

No, wait a minute. It wasn’t working before. When they dragged us in here without a word, we couldn’t understand them then either.

She almost forgot about that. She couldn’t even tell how long they were imprisoned for.

Suddenly the man opened the door and the Doctor patted him lightly on the shoulder. In response the man…kneeled?

What?

The Doctor didn’t seem put off by this strange behavior in the slightest. Instead, he just waved his hand over his shoulder and said, “well come on then, allons-y!”

Hearing him say that word, the word that only he could say with so much gusto, and the word that would always make her think of him was enough to push her out of her shocked stupor and to start following him.

The man stayed kneeled as they simply walked right by him. Rose couldn’t help but wonder what she was missing. Whatever it was, she felt like it was huge.

“I’ll need you lot to keep quiet till I say so, alright?” The Doctor instructed without breaking stride. He took long forward steps; leading them out of the dungeons and into the brightly lit corridor that he had previously entered.

“Then why are we jus’ walkin’ out ‘ere, eh, what if some’it see’s us? We don’t all ‘ave ‘oods you know?”

The Doctor simply nodded and as if reminded, placed his hood back over his head, blocking it from view. Other than his nod, the Doctor didn’t answer.

Rose decided to trust him like she always did and always would. They followed him without a word of explanation as to what was going on.

The followed him into a basic looking stairwell and began to climb up slowly, level by level. He led them higher and higher up.

At no point did the Doctor seem short of breath, but by the filth floor, Jackie demanded the break they were all thinking of, then they all but collapsed against the wall of the stairwell.

The stairwell looked old and used. It was extremely plain and basic. The kind you would see in an old earth building, bland and off white with peeling paint and a faint mildew smell.

Rose thought the Doctor would complain or mutter something insulting about humans and their slowness. But instead, he looked concerned. Rose stopped and leaned over next to her mum, clutching a stitch that had just appeared in her side, breathing heavily.

Even Jack was a little red and out of breath. Adrenaline, Rose decided, was the only thing that got them this far. But she could feel that fade despite still needing to keep moving.

For a moment no one spoke and all that could be heard were three people struggling to breathe normally again.

The Doctor looked them over properly through the side of his eyes. Their thin frames, filthy hanging clothing, the effort it clearly took to move. The Doctor then broke the silence by asking in a deadly whisper. “Did they starve you?”

It was so quiet, Rose almost missed it.

Almost.

He met her eyes, but she looked away, unable to return his fierce and steady stare. Then he looked to Jack, who held his gaze for a moment before nodding slowly.

The Doctor’s eyes grew dark and they could all see the rage that began to instantly cloud his handsome features, even though the shadows the hood cast upon them.

“They starved you, really? They starved you?”

His voice became louder with each word until he was shouting.

“For how long? Huh? Tell me?”

He ran over to Jack and grabbed his arm as if Jack was going to run away and he had to hold him in place.

“Doctor please, be quiet, or they’ll find us,” Rose whispered, more fearful of the Doctor’s pain and rage than actually being found.

He ignored her and instead reiterated in an almost animalistic growl, “how long?”

Rose winced.

“T’ree days.”

Rose was surprised to find that it was her mother who spoke, and more so that she was able to keep count. Rose had easily lost track of time, and she naturally assumed that her mum did as well. It couldn’t have been three days of starvation though. Rose remembered when they still brought them food, it’s just that they eventually well, stopped.

Jackie stood up, still leaning against the wall, red-faced, but set in a mask of bravery.

The Doctor balled his hands into shaky fists. Rose knew he was about to start shouting again.

They heard footsteps approaching from the floor directly above them.

“Doctor, quick, we have to move.”

Jack starting maneuvering his way down the stairs, but instead of letting himself be dragged along, the Doctor let go of Jack’s arm and stayed completely still.

Jack went right up to his face so he could see clearly under the hood.

“Doctor, this is no time to have a tantrum because you’re upset about something that had nothing to do with you, now let’s move!”

Jack’s voice bounced off the halls, no longer caring about being heard now that they were already discovered. Rose ran over to help her mum up properly, holding her tightly.

Still, the Doctor didn’t move or say a word. His hands clenched and his breathing hitched. It was clear in moments like this, why he was nicknamed The on Coming Storm. Jack didn’t seem phased.

“Well, I’m not going to stand here and get us all recaptured, come on,” Jack indicated for Jackie and Rose to follow him, as he took a step downward.

Jackie started to follow, but Rose didn’t move. She couldn’t move.

How could she leave him when she just found him again?

The door one level up from them clanged open loudly almost at the same time the one below repeated the action. A group of armed and strangely uniformed men surrounded them from the lower stairwell and the one above, completely blocking off any possibility of exit.

They were each wearing dark red pants and button-down shirts, with matching berets. The red was the exact same shade as the man they left kneeling downstairs. On each shoulder was a badge with circles on it in loopy patterns.

The men were shouting at them in the same smooth language the Doctor and the other man were speaking in before. They held up weapons, aiming carefully for the four of them on the middle landing. As she had only ever heard the language spoken softly before, it sounded even more foreign to hear the smooth articulations being shouted.

Jack, Rose, and Jackie huddled closer to the Doctor; as if being around him meant they were safe from harm’s way. That turned out to be somewhat true.

The Doctor said something in that language and then pulled down his hood.

The reaction this brought was instantaneous and nearly comical. At once all the men put down their weapons and some saluted while others awkwardly tried to kneel while standing atop a flight of stairs.

The Doctor was still angry though. He said something in a loud and demanding voice, his fury bouncing off the walls, loud and menacing.

Nearly all the men winced and looked worried. The Doctor spoke one word. At least, it was a single syllable, so it sounded like one word. Then a man singled himself out from the group to walk over to him.

They had a short conversation. There was a lot of animation on the Doctor’s part, but the man just stood there, eyes serious, hands firmly at his sides, and listened intently to each word.

When it seemed the Doctor was done, the man saluted again and then went to stand back in formation with the rest of his group.

They all shouted the same word as before, then they all left in tandem. That is, all but two. The man who spoke to the Doctor and a second, that looked almost identical to him, stayed put as the others dispersed around them. There was a loud clang and groan of old rusted hinges as the doors above and below them slammed shut. Then silence again.

The two that stayed came down the rest of the way from the stair level above, and just stood behind everyone, backs pressed hard against the wall as if trying to disappear into the peeling walls, standing completely straight and silent. If Rose didn’t know better, she’d say they were all soldiers in the military, awaiting the commands of their commander.

But wait, who says I know better, she thought?

What was more, why did seeing the Doctor’s face make everyone act that way? How was the Doctor able to just walk around this place so freely? Why was he even here if he wasn’t a prisoner, and if he was, why was everyone acting so cautious and respectful around him instead of trying to lock him up again?

One thing was for sure. Rose prayed that where ever the Doctor was taking them, it was somewhere private and uninterrupted in which he could explain everything.


	2. Chapter Two

The soldiers had escorted them to the highest level. They must have climbed over thirty flights of stairs. They had to stop for breaks many times over. Each time they did, the two soldiers glanced anxiously at each other, and each time, the Doctor stood stoically silent, almost to the point of abhorrence. 

At last, they had reached the top. The top landing was incongruous to the previous landings they had passed along the way up. Awaiting them was a set of heavy double doors with a very intricate TARDIS blue wire box hanging by the side on the wall. 

The Doctor pulled out an old fashion key and opened the small blue door to open the box. The lid swung outward, and as the rest of the crew was standing behind the Doctor, they were unable to see what was in the box or what the Doctor was doing. 

A second later, the double doors opened by themselves, and the Doctor closed the box again and locked it with the key.

Without saying a word, the Doctor led them into a polished grand hallway. The ceilings were impossibly high, with chandeliers that hung what felt like half a mile down. Every few steps hung a second one encrusted with the brightest diamonds any of the earthlings had ever seen. 

They gave the room a kind of sparkling light that seemed to make the hall come alive. It danced off the ten-foot windows and glittered off the elaborate golden picture frames that lined the walls in neat order. 

The Doctor’s cloak held the most noticeable difference. Instead of the dull simple brown, it was before, it lit up as if a sunspot had found him and him alone. It sparkled and shone as if he was a lone star in a dark galaxy. He literally became too bright and dazzling to look at. So instead Rose began to sleuth the rest of the place as they walked along the hallway. 

The carpets were a deep rich red to match the long velvet curtains, standing at least ten feet high. There were small tables holding all types of art from grand fresco pottery to diamond statues of imperious looking men and women. The pictures on the wall seemed to be a timeline of some kind. It looked to Rose like it might have been a family timeline, although there was less and less resemblance as they walked on. Each picture showed a man or woman dressed in a crown of immaculate diamond and golden robes streaming with gems, that looked to be the same, almost alive, material as the Doctor’s cloak.

At the end of the hall were two golden brown doors that stood as large as the ceiling. They looked possibly too heavy to open. The doors were engraved with narrow clockwork patterns and designs that nagged at something in Rose’s consciousness.

The Doctor paused at the doors and turned around to face them at last. Their escorts bowed politely and veered to the side, but otherwise didn’t move.  
Rose raised her eyebrows at the Doctor, wondering who on earth they were going to see behind those gigantic glorious doors.

Normally on her travels with the Doctor, to get through a door, metaphorically speaking, he would rely on his trusty psychic paper or sonic screwdriver, but she hadn’t seen him pull either out once. His words from only moments ago floated into her mind.

There are easier ways to open doors…

And just as Rose was thinking it, the Doctor simply touched the curly door hands made in the same design as the scripted doors, and they swung open fluidly.   
Rose expected noise of some kind, any kind, to come with opening doors that large, but they opened as quickly and smoothly as if on ice.

They walked in slowly, the Doctor keeping his position in the lead. 

It was transforming. They had gone from a jail cell to a building staircase to a grand hallway, to… this? 

Even the entrance hall couldn’t prepare their eyes for such splendor. The ceiling was half a mile above them. From the way it glittered and sparkled, it looked like it was crawling with diamond insects. Space alone was at least twenty times the size of Rose’s old flat in her first universe. The carpet was a swirl of color and artistically complicated designs that, like so much else here, reminded Rose of the innards of a clock. A cherry wood desk stood glistening beyond a window almost as tall as the ceiling with the curtains that match the carpet. Curtains that were so long and thick, they could cover an entire house. Several sofas were arranged in a semi cercal around the desk, of all different sizes and all of them the same color and material of the Doctor’s robes. 

Other than the desk, sofas, and a few art stands, the massive room was almost painfully bare. Instead of walls, it seemed to be aligned with doors leading to who knows where? The style of the doors reminded Rose of the ones in the TARDIS. 

In fact, many things here did…

None of what they saw in the room was anything compared to the view they saw through the split curtains.

The most breathtaking city awaited their eyes. It was so glorious; it was almost painful to look at. They must have been even higher up than Rose first thought. They must have climbed far more than around thirty flights of stairs to reach this level of height. Rose could see each building, each playground with attractions she had never seen before, each house with each yard. But she could also see behind that. 

A mountain view greeted them. Twin mountains far off in the distance stood like a testament to the city itself. As if they were two great giants guarding the city. For all Rose knew, they were. She’d seen stranger things. 

She could see trees with silvers leaves and grass that stretched for miles. Alien grass, the color of living crimson. 

Everything from the building tops to the silvers leaves seemed alive and dancing with the most brilliant light Rose had ever seen. The sun here must have been something else. It seemed to almost be giving light from the east side and the west side at the same time. At least she finally received confirmation that they were no longer on Earth. It was just a likely possibility until this point. 

The doors swung shut behind them softly. Rose, Jack, and Jackie looked around in astonishment as the Doctor casually crossed the room in long strides and sat down behind the immaculate desk. He steepled his hands on the desk, and stared at the standing humans, waiting.

It took a while for them to get over the royal aspect of it all, and to finally inch over to the Doctor. 

They stood awkwardly around the desk, feeling extremely out of place in their tattered and filthy clothes. None of them had showered in maybe a week, nor eaten a proper meal for days. Rose had a strong sense of dis-attachment. She may have been rich in her second universe, but she could never feel comfortable in a place like this.

“Well, sit down.” The Doctor announced suddenly. 

Rose jumped breaking out of her trance. She was so absorbed in the majesty of it all that she didn’t notice that Jack and her mother were looking at her in amusement from their seated positions on a brown sofa, which at a second glance, looked more golden brown. 

Rose sat on the brown couch opposite them but still parallel to the Doctor sitting at a desk that was three times his size. She gently brushed her hand along the silky exterior of the sofa, reviling in the sheer softness after three days of hard and cold surfaces. 

The desk was bare except for one thing. A glass box stood at its center, right in front of the Doctor. Rose stared at it. She found it hard to believe it wasn’t the first thing that caught her eye about the desk.

Sitting peacefully in the glass…or was it crystal, box perched the most gorgeous crown in all of creation. Sure she had seen pictures of crowns in the past, and she had even met some royalty in her travels with the Doctor, but none of them carried their own presence. The closest thing to it would have to be the ones painted in the ornate pictures aligning the corridor to this room, but even that couldn’t prepare her for the true beauty that nothing but the genuine article could do justice. 

It was made of pure diamond! Instead of pointy edges, it was rounded at the top, forming that circular pattern again that was too bright to look at. It seemed to emanate its own light. 

She didn’t know how she knew, but the crystal encasing was somehow shielding the crown’s true splendor, somehow dimming its light. 

“I suppose it’s nice?” The Doctor brushed offhandedly as if answering a question, instead of the understatement it obviously was.

Suppose? Suppose? What was he talking about? 

Rose had never seen anything more beautiful in her life. It seemed that her mother and Jack were in agreement with her. They couldn’t take their eyes off it as well. 

Suddenly the crystal darkened dramatically and the crown’s spell wore off.

She looked up in surprise to find the Doctor’s hands atop the casing with a frown of annoyance on his face.

Rose shook her head, trying to clear it off. It was more than its beauty. The precious thing seemed to fill her head with wonder and a deep sense of awe.

“Doctor?” She said breathlessly, her mind spinning. 

“Are you going to tell us what this place is then? And who’s… room I guess, this is?" Jack asked, also a little breathless. 

It seemed the crown affected him the same way. It made Rose feel a little less foolish. 

“An’ who the ‘ell were thos’ men out t’ere, I didn’t like ‘em, they kept starin’ at me like I was some kinda alien,” Jackie said with a shudder.

Rose only just noticed that their escort had not followed them beyond the double doors. 

The Doctor looked long and hard at Jackie before sighing and answering. 

That’s cause you are aliens, aren’t you?”

“Are we,” Rose asked?

He nodded. 

“My how roles reverse,” he intoned mysteriously.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Look Doc, can you please just tell us what the hell is going on here, no more riddles?” 

The Doctor leaned back, and then to their surprised put his feet negligently upon the desk, nearly kicking the tinted crown encasement in the process.

On the one hand, to make himself so comfortable where ever he was, was so like him, but on the other, whoever’s office this was if you can call it an office, wouldn’t take to that very kindly at all. 

He was also barefoot for some reason. Rose suspected that he wasn’t wearing anything under that robe at all, and found it hard to shake the thought from her mind.

Jack was getting increasingly annoyed with the Doctor’s apathy and silence. He was about to tell him so when the Doctor finally spoke.

“It’s mine.”

Jack stopped dead, mid breath. He turned and stared at the man too bright to be real.

“W’at?” Breathed Jackie.

“It’s…yours…” Jack stammered. “Huh?”

The Doctor grinned. But it wasn’t just any grin. It was his signature, I love it when… grin. His mouth opened wide, showing all his teeth and just a hint of tongue. 

It filled Rose with a longing so old and familiar that it almost seemed like an old friend. 

She missed him so SO much!

“Come on Jack, haven’t you figured it out yet?” He said brightly.

Jack stood up so as to stare the Doctor down, and leaned over the desk to look directly into his eyes. 

“You’re joking?” He challenged, raising an eyebrow. 

The Doctor’s response was to laugh. His laugh changed from the one Rose knew so well. It was even lighter, airier, and less weighed down. What could possibly have changed him so much in only a few years?

“I’m not, I’m really not.” He insisted, never losing his manic grin.

It was infectious, and Rose found herself smiling like an idiot along with him. Whatever was happening, she was reunited; something she thought would only be a dream.

“Okay, I give up, how is this all yours?” Jack smirked smugly. As if to say, ha, try and find a way out of that one? 

He raised his eyebrows in a challenge, but the Doctor never lost faith. In fact, his grin somehow got even wider.

In one motion the Doctor swung his feet off the desk, stood up, walked over, and pulled Jack in a bear hug that almost lifted him above the ground.

Jack let out a cry of surprise, but it quickly morphed into laughter. 

“Ahhh I missed you!” The Doctor said through being pressed against Jacks’s chest.

“Uh, I missed you too, but can we please get to the explaining part of today?”

The Doctor let Jack go, and beamed proudly at them all.

“Of course, if you wanted to keep hugging me, or perhaps do even more, I won’t say no,” Jack winked.

And instead of the Doctor reprimanding him, he went over and gave Jack another hug. But it was broken quickly by a loud clanging sound that came from the front of the room.

Jackie looked apprehensively at the door, Jack, poised, ready for a fight. Rose, however, looked to the Doctor. 

“Doctor, what’s that? Should we run?” 

It felt like a stupid thing to say after the way they so casually strutted around the place, but it was hard to feel like they belonged. A barefooted Doctor, and three prisoner companions in a ballroom filled with a clanging that rattled in their very skulls.

The Doctor rushed over to the desk and placed his hands on the encasing crystal. There was a sound of air being let out of a can, and then the box slid open on top. The Doctor quickly dug his hands in and adorned the crown. 

Rose gasped. He treated the treasure like it was a hat. He thrust it quickly on his head, flattening the few stray hairs that had dried and began their relentless quest to defy gravity, and straightened his robes. She hadn’t even noticed his hair had been wet. To be fair though, she reasoned with herself, he was wearing that hood for most of their time with him so far. 

He pulled a small mirror out of one of the draws in the desk and checked to see if his crown was on straight. He smoothed his wet hair out of his eyes and tucked a loose strand behind the rim. Once satisfied, he started to walk over to the door.

Jack grabbed his arm to stop him though. 

“Doctor, this isn’t funny anymore. Who’s ever that thing belongs to, they aren’t going to let you get away with just putting it on.”

Instead of him being cross with Jack, as Rose would have expected, he gave him a quizzical look. Then understanding dawned on him. 

“Ohhh, you don’t understand anything do you?!” He suddenly exclaimed, bouncing on the balls of his feet. Of course, of course! The TARDIS doesn’t translate Gallifreyan, does it?”  
Gallifreyan? Did he mean…

“Jack, do you mind, I’ll have to physically insert the language into your head, won’t hurt a bit, I promise!”

“Uh...I guess,” Jack stammered.

The Doctor gently placed his forefingers from each hand on Jack’s temples. He rested his forehead on Jack’s and then closed his eyes. 

Jack closed his as well. A second later, they both opened their eyes and wore reflecting stupid grins on their faces. 

“There, all done!” The Doctor said clapping his hands together. “Who’s next?”

“But I don’t feel any different?”

“Why would you? It’s like learning a new language, except minus all the tedious, boring parts.” 

He looked thoughtful for a moment. 

“Although I did have to store it in your brain. Don’t worry, it’s in your prefrontal cortex as opposed to your hippocampus, and to access it, all you’ll have to do is treat it like any other second language. You know, when you try to remember how to say something and you can almost feel your brain working… or do humans not do that, hard to say. Anyway, Rose?”

“Sure Doctor, I’ll have a go.” 

She couldn’t quite say she understood, but she knew enough to give it a go. She guessed Jack felt the same way because he still didn’t seem to understand what was going on.  
She only knew that she trusted him, and whatever he was going to do, she was sure it would only help.

He walked up to her and instead of going straight for her temples; he took her hands in his own. She felt the tingles again and stared up into his brown eyes.

“Rose Tyler,” he whispered. “Oh, my sweet, beautiful, Rose Tyler.” 

And before she could comprehend that he just called her beautiful, he had pressed his lips gently over hers. 

The kiss started out soft, gentle, and caressing. But it escalated fast, becoming more heated and intense. 

Rose responded with equal passion. She felt his tongue trying to enter and she parted her lips eagerly. Their tongues danced around and around and she was suddenly aware that she had closed her eyes, and her hands were groping around wildly through his hair. 

They pulled apart to breathe, both gasping for air with identical grins on their face. The Doctor licked his wet lips, and Rose was tempted to kiss him again. But before she could, he turned away. 

“Jackie, your turn.”

Rose flushed as darkly as the grass. She didn’t mean to snog the Doctor like that in front of her mother. 

“Oh no, I don’t know w’at you’re ‘f’inking, but you ant snogging me with t’at mouth!” 

The Doctor laughed. “Come on Jackie that was a preference. I’ll do it just like I did it to Jack.”

Jack snorted, Rose giggled, Jackie scoffed, and the Doctor rolled his eyes.

“What about my preferences?” Jack said and Rose could literally hear the wink in his voice. 

Rose was trying her best not to look into the Doctor’s kiss too much, nor that he had just said it was a preference to kiss her… and he had called her beautiful... 

She shooed her thoughts away for later. It wouldn’t do her any good to continue blushing like a mad school girl around him after just being reunited. Not to mention that her mother was still right there… 

“You know what I mean.” The Doctor said. 

He walked over to her, and raised his hands but didn’t make a move to touch her. 

“I need to know first, do you trust me?”

Jackie took a long look at her daughter. Rose met her gaze, trying to convey the trust she herself placed in this man and willing her mother to do the same. Jack was right though, she didn’t notice anything different. Whatever the Doctor was doing seemed virtually undetectable.

Jackie sighed and deflated slightly. 

“Alright, but keep your tongue w’ere I can see’t, and that includes out of my daugh’er!” She demanded. 

The Doctor placed his hands on her temples, and within another second, pulled apart.

“Done,” he smiled happily. “Now to deal with the racket.”

What was before a loud din in her head, was now a dull knocking sound. Did it have something to do with what the Doctor did to them?

“Alright, alright, you can come in now.”

When the Doctor spoke, he did it in that same language as before, the same smooth but loopy sounds flowed from his lips, almost like he was singing and talking at the same time. 

When Rose focused on the sounds, however, they suddenly made sense. He was right though, it didn’t feel like it normally did when the TARDIS automatically translated everything for them. It felt like this was her second language that she had struggled to learn, but in the end, completed. 

So that was what he did to them.

The Doctor straightened his crown again, and glided across the room, glittering like an angel.

He placed his hands along the door handles but didn’t pull. Instead, he walked backward, arms outstretched, allowing the doors to swing open.

The balding man from the dungeons stood there, twisting a corner of his robes in his hands nervously.

“My Lord,” he said, “a thousand pardons, but I was told you wanted to see me?”

“Ah, yes, good, come in.” The Doctor said in a serious tone that Rose only heard him use when there was trouble.

The man bowed deeply before walking into the room just enough that the door could close behind him, and then stopped.

“Avast, I know I haven’t fully gotten around to fixing up the old prison system yet, but when you informed me that there were new prisoners, I never expected to find them in such a condition.”

The Doctor spoke in a calm and collected voice, but each word made the man wince and roll his robes tighter. He hunched over even more than he was before, in his fear, like a small mountain collapsing in on itself. 

“We had…had no idea, sir, no idea at …all that they were…erm…friends of-“

”That’s of no matter to anyone.” The Doctor snapped. “And you should know why. What did I say before? What are the new laws?” 

“But sir, if I may?” The man squeaked, becoming more and more unsettled. He seemed to shrink under the towering and imposing form of the Doctor.

“Yes?”

“Well, sir, the other guards said that if the jail was too…too nice then it wouldn’t be much of a…a prison would it? So they said we should starve them because that still wasn’t against the law sir. But I shouldn’t have let that happen, sir, I should have known better. And I am sorry.”

Suddenly he stood to his full height. He wasn’t short at all, just really bent over. In fact, he was just about as tall as Rose was.

“I take full responsibility, my Lord. It was my duty to look out for these kinds of things and I failed you.”

The Doctors face softened. “I want you to use your judgment to go fire whoever will not listen and reprimand who will.”

Upon his words, the man’s face lit up. “Sir?”

“Yes, Avast, I am giving you one more chance. Just one though, mess up again or you will be demoted.”

“Oh, sir!” Avast cried out in joy. He looked like he was struggling not to run up and hug the Doctor.

The Doctor cocked his head, “oh, go on then”, and he hugged the little man, bending over slightly to do so. 

“Thank you, sir, thank you! You are truly merciful, and kind, and just and…and….thank you!”

Rose thought he would start kissing the hem of the Doctor’s robes any second. The whole idea of it was completely ludicrous.

“That’s what I like about you Avast. Always willing to be a bit less formal.”

Avast hesitated. “Sir, can I… can I ask you something, tedious sir?”

“If you want to ask it, then it’s already not tedious, is it? Maybe… curiosity?”

Avast nodded.

“Well, how can I say no to something like that, eh?”

Avast gave a large toothy grin. “Well sir, I was just wondering why you were out of your formal attire in the first place.” 

He flinched immediately as if about to be struck down. “I'm sorry, your highness, I'm so sorry. That was brass and –“

The Doctor’s laughter cut him off. “Nonsense. It’s a worthy question. I told you, I like that your one of the few people who would ask me something like that. Never stem your curiosity. Never!” The Doctor said gently, sounding every bit like an old professor giving a lecture. 

Avast looked a little less frightened, but still very tense.

“To be honest,” the Doctor said, rubbing the back of his neck. I just came out of the bath. Don’t tell anyone, but this is my bathrobe.”

Avast jumped and his face turned beat red. “I’m so sorry sir. I am so –“

“Oh it’s all right, how were you to know. Besides, I haven’t been interrupted by something so wonderful in ages!” He turned his head to wink back at them.

“Yes sir, if I may sir, I’ll go take care of your wishes at once sir.”

“Good idea, you can go now then.” 

The Doctor brushed his fingers gently over the doorknob and they opened on their own. Avast bowed and walked out, backward, keeping his face to the Doctor. 

The Doctor’s back was turned to her so Rose couldn’t see his face, but she really wanted to. Especially if it would give her any clues as to what was going on.  
At last, Avast was gone and the doors closed too softly for such large doors, behind him.

The Doctor chuckled and walked back to his desk.

“Sorry, I just wanted to make sure that no one else has to suffer like that.” He regarded them very seriously, “I am truly sorry for what happened to you. I know I owe you explanations as I doubt you understood anything they said to you before. Another thing I have to take care of.” He sighed again; a long deep sigh that made him look older than she had ever seen him.

“Well, sit down. I’ll call us up some food and then I’ll explain everything.”


	3. Chapter Three

Before the Doctor could properly begin his tale, there was another knock at the double doors. It echoed loudly around their heads. The Doctor rubbed his temples and muttered, “oh for Rassilon’s sake.”

Then he did something very very strange. 

He stretched out his right hand towards the door as if trying to extend his arm far enough without getting up, his eyes trained unblinkingly on the door. 

It opened. 

Just like that. As if some invisible force was yanking the twin handles backward and forcing the doors to open smoothly and completely silently. 

Rose looked from the Doctor to the doors and back again. The Doctor's face betrayed nothing but an apathetic frown.

How was that possible? It was almost as if...

Before she could think further on it, a woman in a different type of red robe began to approach. There was a pleasant smell wafting from a sliver kart the woman wheeled in with her.

"Ah, the food, good...good....” The Doctor mumbled absentmindedly. 

The woman eyed the humans of the room wearily but didn't react to whatever her thoughts were. 

It took a few minutes for her to cross the massive room and with each step she took, the smell got closer. Rose began to salivate at the mere thought of a hot meal, and her stomach growled in agreement. 

The wheels of the cart and the footsteps of the women were muffled greatly by the golden-red carpet that clashed horribly with the brown sofas, but the cart still gave a little groan when it reached its destination as if it were tired and ready for a nap. 

Rose knew the feeling, but she could hardly think of anything other than the promise of what lay under the immaculate round dishes covering the platters and blocking her eyes cruelly from seeing their bounty. 

After seeing the Doctor again, everything else had been pushed to the back of her mind. She only just comprehended what a state she was in. They were imprisoned for days. No showers, proper bathroom breaks, or food, let alone simple things like a hairbrush, a toothbrush... God her breath! 

She suddenly felt embarrassed. The Doctor's fresh sent was clear from the second he appeared. Rose was pleased to note that he still smelt of bananas, some things pleasantly never changed. Yet, here she was, in front of the one man she would do anything to be desirable to, looking worse than she ever had. 

Then she felt shame. 

Shame in thinking that things like that were important to the Doctor. She knew him better than that. She knew that all he cared about right now was whether or not they were okay and what was the extent of their mistreatment. She hoped he never found out. 

She was broken out of her thoughts by a prickling on the back of her neck. She was spacing out, her eyes glazed at the food cart, but then she looked up. The woman who brought the food in was staring at her. 

Really staring at her. As if she was an...alien.

She understood then. She was sure of it. They didn't know what planet they were on, but all they knew was that is sure as hell wasn't earth. She was an alien. The Doctor had said they were aliens here, but it was different to see people treat her that way. She wondered if they were giving this woman her first impression of humans and if they were, that she would understand that they didn’t all look so savage. 

She has been on other planets before, seen humanoids before, and she had been the alien before. But at least then she wasn't the only one. The Doctor was also just as foreign as her. But for some strange reason, she couldn't shake the thought that this was somehow more than just some planet that the Doctor had somehow established some sort of commanding role on. He was both too comfortable and too familiar with everything.

Rose refused to let the strange woman intimidate her. She stared right back, unbashful. The woman blushed and turned to face the Doctor. 

She bowed deeply before him and with a quick, “my apologies sir”, began to back out of the room, with her back to the door and her eyes never leaving the Doctor. 

The Doctor met her gaze, stare for stare. Silent words passed between them, and Rose yearned to understand what was going on for what felt like the hundredth time. 

At the moment though she wasn't sure what she wanted more, the food or the explanation. Hopefully, the Doctor would understand their impatience, and let them have both simultaneously. 

After being crapped up in a small cell only slightly bigger than a walk-in closet with two other people, she was aching to do something. Eat, run, understand, grab the Doctor and snog him senseless. Just something! 

The doors gave a barely audible click shut, and only then did the Doctor blink. He rubbed his eyes with his left hand. 

“I feel like I am going to be saying this a lot, but I'm sorry again. She, well most people here really, have never really seen a human before.” 

So Rose was right. 

Jack nodded in understanding. “So then if she wasn't human, then is anyone here human? Are you going to finally tell us where the hell we are?" 

The Doctor stared at Jack in surprise. "You have to ask? Isn't it obvious?”

“We’r not all big bleedin’ aliens with big brains, ya know? Ya can actually spell stuff out, it would’t kill ya.” Jackie retorted halfheartedly. 

Her eyes were trained firmly on the food kart that the humans wanted to both ravish and at the same time were apprehensive to touch. 

The Doctor followed her eyes and stood up. He straightened his robes, looking rather pompous with his diamond crown and sparkling garbs. Rose half expected him to pretend to look for imaginary dirt under his fingernails. 

He didn't, and Rose really didn't want to think about what was under her fingernails. 

The Doctor took off the lid on the largest platter. Steam wafted up in a cloud and the sent of sweet-savory chicken filled their nostrils. 

It didn't look like chicken though. For one thing, it was much larger. For another, it still had its head, and that was most definitely not the head of a chicken, and chickens did not have scales. 

There was a second lower shelf to the cart that the Doctor leaned into and pulled out a small stack of ostentatious looking dishes and cutlery. 

He set the plates, if you can call something that looked as if it was made with real gold a "plate", on his desk in neat order. Then began opening all the smaller, covered pots and dishing them out evenly on three different plates. 

The dishes were made, or so it seemed, out of pure gold, and they were each almost as large as the chicken creature. The Doctor scooped up bits of potatoes, beef, gravy, roasted vegetables, fruits they had never seen, and so much more. Somehow he managed to squeeze some of the aforementioned carved bird onto each plate. He then placed a fork and knife with a diamond-studded handle, by each plate. Then he stood back to admire his handy work. 

He seemed to notice that his desk wasn't exactly a good table, and the sofa's they currently occupied was not pressed up against the desk, but rather parallel. 

“Stand up a moment, k?” He asked, making a square with his hands and looking through it at them. 

Rose, Jack, and her mom all shared a confused glance, before obliging. 

The Doctor shoed them further back with his hand, still looking at the brown sofa that Jack and Jackie were just sitting on. 

“Just come around my desk a tick, ya?”

They did so, without hesitation, wanting to see what he was going to do. 

Rose gasped, Jackie gave a small shriek of shock, and Jack breathed, “Oh you’re kidding me?”

One of the brown sofas was moving, on its OWN! 

It was sliding across the carpet as if on skates. It turned around and stopped only when it was right in front of the desk, facing it. 

“W’at t’e ‘ell was t’at, ‘ow did you... did you... is that f’in’ alive, cause I was sittin’ in it, an I ant sittin’ in some funny alien couch f’hat's gonna eat –“

She stopped rambling and switched to huffing indignantly at the Doctor’s laughter. 

“Alive!” He roared. “Really? Alive? And gonna eat you did you say?”

Jackie ignored him and just mumbled that she said nothing of the sort. 

“Doctor…,” Jack started, but the Doctor waved him off. 

“First sit, eat.” 

He motioned to the couch. Rose half expected it to move again at his hand movement, but it didn’t. 

Rose sat down at once and picked up a plate and began at once to shove food into her mouth, not caring how she came across. She was famished and the second the food touched her lips, her stomach growled more ferociously, as if telling her to go even faster, and she did her best to ignore it, knowing that she needed to go slowly. 

She all but moaned in delight. 

The thing she thought looked like chicken tasted nothing like it. It was much sweeter and juicier, but yet also dry and tangy, and the moment she swallowed, she wanted more. 

Jack, after seeing her enthusiasm, joined her and tucked into his plate with a little less fervor, but heated none the less. Jackie looked to be having an inner battle. Sit on the creepy couch and eat what was somehow better than it smelt, or stand there safer but still starving. 

The hunger must have won out, because she joined them, but slowly. She tapped the cushions, pulling back fast, but nothing happened. Then she pressed her hand down hard and jumped back, but nothing happened again. 

“Oh come on now, it was just me okay, the sofa isn't alive or anything, look!”

Jackie screamed again, and Rose and Jack nearly choked on their mouthfuls. 

A pitcher of water began to float over from the second self of the cart and onto the table. It landed gently without splashing a single drop onto the elaborate cherry woodwork. Rose could imagine Jackie’s thoughts about coasters and the lack of, on wood as fine as that, and she grinned to herself behind her fork. her second immediate thought took over everything else. Her fork starting shaking slightly. 

Rose began coughing and sputtering, and Jackie ran over to thump her on the back a few times, before glaring at the Doctor who had the good sense to look sheepish. 

“Ah,” he said rubbing the back of his neck, “sorry about that. I didn’t mean to startle you, just. Well...” He trailed off. 

Through the thumping of her back, Rose coughed once more and then gave the Doctor a weak thumbs up. 

The Doctor grinned back. 

Jackie eyed him with a mixture of fear and distrust, and the Doctor’s grin vanished. 

“Right then, explanations,” he muttered, sitting back down in his plush chair, leaning back, and putting his still bare feet onto the desk, but well away from their plates. 

“I'm still not convinced that desk is really yours ya know?” Jack added, tentatively reaching a hand over to the water jug and pouring himself a glass. 

“Humans, really? I can move stuff with my mind and your only concern is to think about my desk?” The Doctor rolled his eyes and waved his hands dramatically. 

Rose giggled slightly but was still impatiently awaiting his impending explanation. The Doctor’s humor took her back to so many familiar moments of extraordinary. He had a tendency to make light of those times as well. It felt right, despite to clearly unnatural things he was doing. Then again, he literally changed his face in front of her, so she didn’t know how anything could still surprise her, and at the same time, was glad to find that things still could. 

“Well, it does help if you'd tell us how you'd picked up that little trick too,” Jack agreed. 

Jack and the Doctor shared an amused look. 

“First things first, how old was I when you last saw me?”

Rose looked to Jack, knowing their answers were each going to be different. 

“Well, I think you were about 900 something when I last saw you. I think, I mean, you were never exactly very chatty about your age were you?”

The Doctor gave a small laugh and then raised an eyebrow in anticipation for Jack's answer. 

Jack blew into his cheeks and blew out slowly. “Oh, I don't know, but it was after that whole Miracle Day thing on earth, remember?”

The Doctor nodded enthusiastically. “Oh yeah, Miracle Day, well I say Miracle Day, well, actually, you humans called it that, or-“ 

“Why are you asking this?” Rose asked curiously, trying to will herself to eat slower after noticing she was already halfway done with her plate. The food was already sitting heavily in her gut. As though she was an overinflated balloon. She led back against the couch, away from her food for the moment. She was well distracted, and found that turning away from the food now, felt easier. 

The Doctor gave her that smile in return. The one where he put his tongue between his teeth. The one the always made her blood rush and her stomach quench. 

“Why Rose Tyler, isn't it obvious? It's how I keep track of things now.” Then he chuckled as if he just told some private joke, and swung his legs off his desk, replacing it with folded hands. His face was suddenly serious. 

“That means that I haven't seen you in almost 7,000 years.”

It was lucky Rose was taking a break and didn't have anything in her mouth, because she was sure she would have really choked then. 

Jack stared, completely flabbergasted. 

Strangely it was Jackie who was the first to recover. 

“Come off it, t’at would make you at aroun’ 8,000 years old, ‘hat's not righ’. You look even younger, less lines aroun’ the’y eyes.”

The Doctor remained stoic as he replied. “That's because this time, this face, he pointed to it, is younger than when you last saw it. When I regenerated into it, I was much much younger; I looked like one of your teenagers. Can you imagine that? I never saw what this face would look like so young before. It was quite strange. Stranger still though when I grew more and came back into this old face. It was the first time I'd ever done that you see? Regressed back into a body of my choosing, and I always had a thing for this one. The personally could’ve used a bit of work though, a bit too vain, ill-tempered, but then again, with a controlled regeneration like mine, I got to fix that up a bit didn't I?" 

“I understood nearly half of that,” Rose admitted, frowning in an attempt to take it all in. 

“So let me get this straight,” Jack began slowly. “You’re saying that, well, basically, you’re really really old now?”

The Doctor gave a snort of mock indignation. “Hey, look who’s talking, your- oh no wait, I actually don't know how old you are now. When was the last time you saw me again? Because the last time I saw you was very different.” 

Jack's head jerked up, and he paused with his hand that was in mid-lift of a fork to his mouth. “Oh?” 

“Yeah, the last time I saw you...” He trailed off, unsure suddenly. “Well, it's apparently your future. For one thing, you look nothing like you do now.” 

“Do I?” Jack burst out excitedly. “Did I, or is it, do I…do I, you know, age? Do I look older, younger even, still as devilishly handsome as ever?”

The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Still as annoying as ever I'll tell you though.”

The Doctor surveyed Jack, visibly debating whether he should tell him something or not. 

“I'll tell you this much, we are still good friends, and recently actually, I brought you here and, well... Let's just say we had an interesting time of it.” The Doctor wiggled his eyebrows seductively. 

Jack gasped. “No way! No freaking way! Are you telling me-?!” 

“So does ‘hat mean you’re gay?” Jackie interrupted, taking her first break from stuffing herself. She seemed to have lost all her previous hesitations about the food and the sofa. 

Rose shot her mum a look, but the Doctor laughed. 

“Gay isn't really that kind of a thing here. It’s both stricter and more lenient at the same time.” 

Jack asked, “What does that mean?” While Rose said at the same time, “and here would be...?” 

“Gallifrey of course.” 

All three humans just stared at him, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. 

“Doctor…,” Rose said in a tone one might use when trying to explain something simple and irrevocable to a small child. “Gallifrey is gone. You said so yourself. It burned, remember?” 

She expected the flash of pain that always danced across his face at the mere mention of his home planet, but instead, he waved her off. 

“Nah, I just thought it did. I learned the truth when I was around…oh….1,200 and something. Hard to say exactly how old. That regeneration was a bit forgetful about such details.” 

“But how can this be Gallifrey,” Rose cried. “It doesn't make any sense. You said you can't go back, you said you were the last of your kind.” Part of her recognized that she was repeating his most reluctant admissions. Things she would have never said to him before. This used to be the most taboo subject. What could’ve possibly changed so much? 

“I was,” he nodded in agreement. “I really was, but not forever. Only until I was all caught up you see?” 

The confused looks made the Doctor sigh. He sat up straighter, rolling his shoulders to release the tension. 

“All this random question and answering is only making you lot more confused. Tell you what, I'll let you absorb what I have told you so far, and finish your food. Just remember to eat slowly. The guest bathroom is that door there.” 

He pointed to a cherry wood door, with a golden handle, patterned in the same decor as the main double doors. Then he stood, straightened his crown, and pulled down his robes unnecessarily. 

“Meanwhile, I am going to get dressed. It's odd entertaining in my bathrobe.” 

Before they could say anything further on the matter, he crossed the room in only a few powerful strides of his long legs. The hem of his silky sparkling robes alternating between showing them glances of a barefoot and sweeping the floor. 

He went into the furthermost room and the left-hand corner and disappeared behind it, with a soft thud. 

Then all was still. 

The air in the room almost sparked with an awkward and confusing silence left by the Doctor’s sudden and impromptu exit. 

Jack refilled all their glasses with water, emptying the pitcher on his own glass, which he filled last. Then sat back down and didn't touch his plate or his newly filled water cup.   
All of them were trying to take in the bombshells they were just given. 

Rose tried making a list in her head. 

1) The Doctor is back. 

Okay, that was a good first. It was simple, undeniable, and forced an insuppressible smirk to escape her lips. 

2) He was in some kind of position of royalty. 

If the crown, Oh that crown, wasn’t a dead giveaway, then all the, yes your majesty’s and the palace-like of an office they were in sure as hell was. 

3) He is really really old. 

Much older than the last time she had seen him. 

That was certain if what he said was to be believed. He once said to her, he would outlive her. It was a time when she was elated, happy. Convinced of her choice and her destiny to stay with him forever. That was one of the few times she could see how truly lonely he was. How depressed it made him. 

4) Was the one that possibly freaked her out the most, he had somehow gained a new supernatural ability. 

Could he really move things with his mind? If it was anyone else, Rose would have thought that he was having her on, but the proof was in the evidence. Unless it was all some trick. She always knew he was a telepathic species as he had shown her and told her many times before. She thought that was normal for his kind at the time. Normal for him and his people to be able to go inside the minds of other creatures, and to understand every language. 

He always had this way of just knowing the time. He said that was a Time Lord thing, but still, to just be so aware of the time, there was most definitely something...supernatural about that. He was always special, but despite all that, he was more special to her. Despite all his mind tricks, and strange abilities. 

She wondered if every one of his kind was able to move things with their mind. 

It was strange to think of him as nonhuman. Rose was always aware that he wasn’t human, but just as often, she needed to be reminded. The only time she really and truly understood that he wasn't human, was when he regenerated. But even then, she was glad. It took her time to get used to it, but she found she loved the new him even more than the old him. But she still wouldn’t want that to happen to him again. 

Rose didn't know how to feel about all of this yet. All she felt at the moment was a sense of numbed shock. She couldn't even begin to imagine how to cope with all this. And somehow, on top of it all, Gallifrey was back? And they were on it? 

Her head was starting to hurt. A thought had struck her. A terrible, paralyzing thought. 

Was he even still her Doctor? 

Did he still care about her? Would he even remember what he was going to say, only a year ago for her, but centuries ago for him, on that cold beach on an old American shore? 

Rose sat there, staring pensively at the over large desk, now holding platters, plats, and an empty crown case. The Doctor’s feet were missing from it. A tiny clouded circle, like when you breathe on a glass, imprinted where they had been before. The desk needed him behind it because without him, it just loomed larger than furniture has a right too.   
She wanted to find him so bad. So so badly. But she never imagined this. 

Never. 

In late nights, alone in her room, Her mind often terrified her of scenarios of him moving on without her, of seeing him again, only to be met with rejection in place of that smile she craved from him. 

The empty feeling was slowly ebbing away. Replacing itself with a mixture of dread and fear that crept up her back, giving her chills. 

The door to the far left banged open, reviling someone unrecognizable. 

Rose nearly shielded her eyes against the dazzle and light that seem to emanate off of him. 

The door closed quickly behind him. Whether it was of its own accord or the Doctor using his mind thing, she couldn’t say. 

He crossed the room and sat back down at his desk as if nothing happened. As if he wasn't wearing that crown that seemed the perfect center of two suns, both shinning off it in opposite ends, making it look alive and glorious. Like he wasn’t adored in a billowing gown oozing with jewels and painted in patterns of gold and a deep rich red. As if he didn't look anything like himself, like the Doctor, like... her Doctor. 

It was this change in demeanor and appearance that brought Rose's worst fears into life. 

She choked back a sob, lowering her head. She needed to look away from him. It hurt her eyes in more ways than one. 

Incredulously, Jack was taking it in stride. “Wow... Doc... You look, GORGEOUS!”

He did indeed. The Robes clung tightly to his thin frame like diamond silk, and Rose just noticed now that he was less thin and more build this time around. His crown of breathtaking beauty made his whole face light up and beam with its open radiance. His sideburns were gone as was his five o’clock shadow. He looked younger and more radiant, and yet so very very old. 

She blinked hard, willing the tears away. Now wasn't the time for this. Not in front of this new strange man. 

This man was not her Doctor. She felt ashamed for accepting him so fast without a thought. Wished that it didn’t take only five minutes out of his presents to think clearly again. But most of all, she wished he was him, and that things could go back to the way they used to be. 

Was there any chance left of her finding him? He said the last time he saw her was that last time she saw him. That meant that they didn't meet again until this moment. Which also meant that she never found him in the proper timeline. She didn’t want to appear piteous, but she was finding it hard not to let that get to her and she could tell that she was making a scene. 

The man was at her side in a flash of light and gold. The stranger, the God, was among her, asking her what was wrong, holding her shoulder gently, comfortingly... almost like he would... almost. 

She jerked her shoulder away, only then realizing how hard she was sobbing. Her cheeks burned in embarrassment that this creature of elaborate perfection and strength was there to witness her breakdown. The very idea made her feel weak and pathetic. She wanted to run, to hide, and to go back into the cell before she knew what he had become. Before she knew what had become of her one love. 

Before she understood the death of all things in her world.


	4. Chapter Four

It took a while for her to calm down. But when she finally did, she noticed two things. Firstly, she was completely knackered. And secondly, the Doctor had left again and she couldn't remember how long ago.

Her mom was holding her tightly, rocking her gently, and making small sounds of comfort. When Rose's cries transitioned gently into light hiccups, her mother finally let her go, and Jack handed her a glass of water, which she downed gratefully.

“I'm... I'm sorry.” She mumbled, turning away from their concerned gaze. She blushed from her display of crippling consternation.

She hiccupped again then went to refill her glass but the pitcher was empty.

Jack gave her an amicable smile. And Rose returned it weakly.

“I'm okay, really,” she insisted. To their credit, Jack and her mother did not exchange any dubious glances.

She stood up and stretched. She had been crouched down for too long and her back gave a pleasant pop to reward her movements.

She glanced around for some clue as to where the Doc- where that man had gone. She swallowed a lump that had just formed in her throat.

Don't think like that, she chagrined at herself.

Rose took a deep shuddering breath and forced herself to be calm and aloof about everything. Everything was a big word.

At least for the moment, she would try.

In her most controlled calm and collected voice she asked, “so, where has...er...where has.” She stopped, unable to say his name, but equally unable to call him anything else.

Jack shrugged. “Said he was upsetting you and just left quickly.”

Jack looked to the double doors and if expecting the Doctor to come sauntering right back in at the mere mention of him.

Rose wiped her face with her disheveled sleeve. She felt a flicker of jealousy at that man. He was able to shower and get dressed in... Well, that. But honestly, she was more envious of the shower prospect at the given time.

“I'm sorry,” she mumbled again. Rubbing the back of her head. A trait she had picked up from the Doctor. Once she realized she was doing it, she stopped rather abruptly, giving off a deliberate sheepishness.

There was a palpable silence. Rose was contented to stay that way for a while. And to her sympathies, they did. The three of them squashed together on the smaller sofa, the one that was parallel to the desk instead of pressed against it.

They sat in silence just thinking, and in Rose's case, trying not to feel. She could break down later.

She would break down later, but she wanted, no, needed to hold off, just until they were freed from this place.

She wondered what would happen if they just walked out.

Then she stood rather suddenly, surprised that she hadn't considered it before.

If the Doctor impostor had indeed freed them, then they should be able to leave at their own will, right?

Rose expressed her plan to Jack and her mother.

Her mum looked eager to leave, but Jack, ever the voice of reason, had to buttin his two sense.

“Even if we aren't chucked right back into prison,” he gestured to their obvious incongruously disheveled clothing, “then how would we get back? From everything the Doctor said,” Rose winced, Jack dolefully didn't comment, “we are sometime in the very distant future, and on Gallifrey. How would we just "get back"? I'm sorry Rose, but I think the best course of action is to wait here and when the Doc-“

“Would you stop calling him that!?” Rose barked.

Jack started, taken aback.

“Sorry, sorry! It's just, how can that be him ya know?” She said in a small voice, trying, and failing dismally, to sound nonchalant.

“I thought it was something like that.” Came a quiet voice from behind them all.

Rose flinched and looked guiltily over her shoulder at the man who just entered. The doors closed silently behind him, too silently to hear, and his footsteps didn’t make a sound on the carpeted floor. He held a look of intense longing on his handsome, transcendent features.

For a moment, Rose could do no more than stare at him; he was so bright before she was able to finally tear her eyes away in shame.

“Rose,” he whispered so gently she almost didn’t catch it. “Rose, can I, can I come closer to you?”

It was such an odd thing to ask. It was made downright impossible by their scenery and his attire.

She nodded mutely, wondering why she was agreeing but not able to stop herself all the same.

He approached slowly, taking careful and precise steps. The whole thing made Rose feel silly. As if she was a child who might go off into a temper tantrum at any second.  
Her Doctor would never see her that way.

She arduously pushed that thought from her mind and focused on the approaching man.

Why did the word king come so strongly to mind?

She gulped.

He was a vision. A vision of royalty and splendor and he was walking over to comfort her? Everything about that seemed wrong.

They used to make fun of royalty. Back when everything was right. When everything was simple.

When he finally reached them, he stood over them awkwardly but didn't ask them to stand up from the sofa.

Then he did something completely unexpected.

He plopped down onto the floor.

His robes wrinkled, and crown tilted, but his face grew into a wide, dopey grin.

“Haven't done this in ages.” He exclaimed in delight. His seriousness temporarily forgotten in place of an apparent rare humility.

“Mind you, can't let anyone else see me like this, but, we’re all mates here. And I'll be daft if I ever present myself as superior to the great Dame Rose of the Powell Estate.”

His toothy smirk told her he was joking, but it sent a spark of unwanted hope through Rose. That joke, that memory, it was exactly something her Doctor would say.

Was there somehow a chance he was still in there?

His grin widened when his words and actions had the desired effect.

Rose found she was finally able to meet his gaze.

“There we are,” he chided. She was glad he wasn't treating her like she would go off any moment anymore.

“That's better now!” He chirped. “Be honest though, please.” He asked, his voice taking on a much more serious tone.

“What caused that, just now? Because I don't think it was just my uniform was it?”

Rose's retort was lost on the way out of her mouth.

“I'm sorry!” Jack cried, voicing what they all were thinking. “But you did not just call THAT a uniform!"

The Doctor blinked. “But is it. Why else would I wear such a ridiculous thing? Although, I can't really say that to anyone. If you haven't noticed, it’s a really big deal when I am not dressed formally. I mean, how is it that I am supposed to always be perfectly dressed, perfectly presented, wear this...thing, on my head, I mean, I'd walk around in my brown coat and suit all the time if I could… And my trainers.”

A low seductive growl escaped from the back of his throat. “Oh my do I miss those!”

“Hang on,” Jack gasped, comprehension downing on his face. “Is that why you had your hood up? Because you weren't wearing the crown or something?”

The Doctor looked less than bemused. “Yup!” He said simply, popping the P.

“’Hat's silly,” Jackie piped up. “You ‘ave to ‘ide your face just because you ‘ant downstairs’ an didn't wan’ to wear your crown?”

The Doctor jerked a single eyebrow at her. “You honestly think that down the stairs from where I live, is a dungeon?”

“No?”

“Oh wow, Jackie, come on, work with me here! You didn't feel it? None of you?”

He was doing it again. That thing he would do where he would talk down to humans. The way he would when he was explaining something extremely complex and then would stare perplexedly at you, baffled as to why you didn't understand.

The whole act, the very concept was just so...Doctor... That it finally allowed Rose to find her grin, and maybe, return some of her wavering faith in him back into its solidarity.

“So, what was it? We didn't go through any transporters, teleports, or anything like it or I would have...” He trailed off, eyes falling to rest on his exposed, naked wrist.

“You would... What? Detect it on your imaginary vortex manipulator?”

Jack shot him a glare. But it faded at once when he blurted, “Wait! You can get it back for me, right? They took it away when they arrested us and brought us here. I couldn't imagine why they would want it anyway. What they used to bring us here made my model look prehistoric.”

“That's because it is.”

Jack, in mock affront, put his hand over his heart. “Well, I never.”

Then for a moment, both men just smiled stupidly at each other, Jack for once looking down at him.

As if that thought was heard by Jack, he slowly slid down from the sofa, back resting against it, now level with the Doctor.

“Far be it from me to ever pretend to be superior to the great Doctor of Gallifrey.” Jack quipped, mimicking the Doctor’s previous jest about Rose.

“Actually, the official name is High Lord President. But presidency doesn't work here like you know it. The politics are all completely different. I am…” he sighed, steeling himself. “In all sense of the job, I am in fact, an elected...well...King.”

He looked away then, suddenly unable to meet their eyes, as if shamed by this rather large confession.

Not that they all hadn't suspected as much, but it was another thing to hear him say it.

While never exactly being right out for power, Rose knew the Doctor was never exactly powerless. After all, he always had the ability to travel throughout time and space, his super-brain, and he did always act superior to humans. Although Rose suspected that the last was didn’t come out of actual emotion, rather he had no idea how offhanded he tended to come off. There had always been some aspect of power in him. Powerless people didn’t have nicknames like The On Coming Storm.

His power oozed off him, more so now than ever before. But still, Rose was surprised to find herself thinking... well really, who else would be King of Gallifrey?

She didn't know what people were like here. Maybe all Time Lords were as clever as he was. Or maybe he was the cleverest of the bunch. Maybe they all traveled the universe, or maybe even his regeneration was a power to himself.

Rose rubbed her temples. It was all too confusing and stressful. She was still so emotionally and physically drained.

With enormous effort, she decided to stop thinking and just listen. She tried to channel the numbness and shock she felt when the Doctor first took them into the office. It was easier than she expected. Her exhaustion carried her into the all too willing unfeeling bubble.

She was startled to realize, that must have already been at least over 2 hours ago. It was hard to tell. Judging from the sun outside the window, it was still the same time as before. Maybe time worked differently here. It would make sense, being Time Lords and all.

Rose closed her eyes for a brief moment, took a deep breath, and waited for the Doctor to explain, uninterrupted, by her at last.

She did her best imitation of patience, folding her hands together and crossing one leg over the other, looking, what she hoped was, calmly down at the Doctor and Jack.

Both of which gave her a bemused smile, as if they knew exactly what she was thinking.

Jackie didn't seem to pick up on it though.

“So are you goin’ to tell us w’at the ‘ell ‘appened then, cause we didin’ move, I mean, wouldn't we notice teleportin’ of somein’t?”

She looked to Rose and Jack for support, but they just turned to the Doctor, both having decided that everything would go a lot faster if they stayed silent.

The Doctor shot them a grateful smile and then turned to frown thoughtfully at Jackie. “I guess you can think of it this way. Have you ever had a dreamless sleep?”

Jackie nodded. “Of course!”

“Right, well, it just feels like you’re in bed one second, and then up the next. But what if you didn’t know that you were asleep at all? You would just wonder what happened to the time and why you can't remember. But the human brain can usually tell you when you’re asleep because you know and understand what sleep is, and feels like. So when you wake up, even from a dreamless sleep, well, you know you were sleeping.”

She nodded slowly, but seemed expectant, waiting for him to go on.

He sighed, exasperatedly. “Your brain doesn't know or recognize the mild teleport that I used at the top of the stairs.”

Jackie blinked, slowly taking it in.

“You were sleeping, so to speak, without knowing it. I would never have a jail under where I live, that's just weird. Only I can access that teleport though. It works through a combination of my DNA and thought patterns. Which is basically thought DNA.”

Before Jackie could protest again, the Doctor added, “and this will go a lot faster if you don't interrupt me.”

Jackie shut her mouth, looking a cross between affronted and sheepish.

The Doctor took a deep steadying breath, and finally properly began his tale.


	5. Chapter Five

“A long time ago,” he smiled, “always wanted to start a story like that.”

He cleared his throat, “anyway, it was about 6,600 years ago, give or take a century, and when I was in my 13th body. No, hang on, that was when I got them back.”

He placed his hand on his chin thoughtfully. “It was more around when I was 1,200. So that would make it…” He trailed off, mumbling to himself, before he threw his hand out and said, “Oh, forget it, even my own counting system is confusing me. Mind you, I really was forgetful then.”

In response to the questioning looks he replied, “well I regenerated twice into this one, well, three times now, and the other unaccounted... well, for a long time it was a secret I kept as close to me as my own name. But things…happened. I was called in to investigate Time Lord art. Time Lord art can be used as a stasis chamber you see? And it seemed that something was taking advantage of that, and they escaped. I discovered later that it was a very old nemesis of mine, the Zygons. They can change their appearance to look like anyone. While I was trying to figure all that out, a time fisher opened up. Naturally, I jumped in and I was surprised to find that it took me to, well, myself. It was crossing my own timeline in a huge way. But with the past me and the current me around, we could double my brainpower to figure it all out. Before anything more could happen, a third me, the secret me, the one I never talked about, did my best to never think about, suddenly appeared out of the time fisher as well. Only later when time caught up, was I able to remember what really happened.

The Moment, he whispered, the way one lowers their voice to tell a secret. “The weapon I was going to use to destroy Gallifrey, had become sentient. It created a projection.”

The Doctor turned to beam at Rose. “It said that the name of its chosen form was called... Bad Wolf.”

Rose Gasped. “But it wasn't me!” She shouted, before comprehending what she just blurted and forgetting her vow of temporary silence.

The Doctor chuckled.

“Of course not. And not only did I not remember it till later, as in my thirteenth body later, but it was also before I actually met you.”

Rose grinned back. It was somehow endearing to know that she was in the Doctor’s life even before she knew it. Even though it wasn't her, it was apparently her image or likeness or something.

“Anyway,” the Doctor continued. “So The Moment was the one who opened the time fishers. She wanted me to show me what my life would be like if I went through with my plans. Only things went different. So so wonderfully different. I had this companion at the time, Clara her name was. She was absolutely stone-cold brilliant.”

His expression gazed off fondly at her memory and he missed the brief flash of jealousy from Rose.

“I went with my younger self to meet the me that was about to do it. Gallifrey was un-time locked thanks to The Moment. And just when I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life, Clara reminded me of who I am, of who I really was, and who I promised myself to always be.”

He smiled softly to himself. Looking off into a distinct past that only he could see.

“Just like that, I remembered. I remembered all the late nights, all the lonely ones, and the wishing, the centuries of pain. I remembered the desire to just be able to do it over, to change it. I used to think for days on end, uselessly, what I would do differently if nothing could stop me. And it turned out to not be useless at all. In that one moment, my two past selves and I were completely linked, and we all knew what must be done. I gathered every one of my past selves, we each used our own TARIDS’s, and with all that power, we transported the whole planet into a painting, a stasis painting. Successfully suspending the planet in an alternate universe, safe and sound.”

He swelled with pride at his own brilliance and accomplishment.

“But the timelines changed too much. I wasn't able to remember what happened since right before I almost destroyed the planet to myself suddenly dying of old age in the TARDIS. In my mind, I did just do it, and then I regenerated. Then almost that very same day, I went into a shop in London and found the most beautiful, clever, and brave human girl there. I grabbed her hand…”

He leaned over and took Rose's hand in his own, “and I told her to run.”

He paused for a moment in happy silence. Allowing himself the simple pleasure of just holding her hand.

Rose didn't blush. She squeezed his hand reassuringly, letting him know just how much she agreed.

“That's a lot to take in,” Jack said after a while.

“I know,” the Doctor replied softly, never tearing his hand nor gaze from Rose.

“Okay, so Gallifrey was never really gone?”

The Doctor swallowed visibly and then nodded. He finally looked away from Rose, but instead of taking his hand away, he shimmied closer to where her legs rested and leaned against them.

Rose laughed lightly. They used to sit like this all the time, mostly in the library. She would sit on an armchair and he would sit on the floor and lean against her legs like the back of a chair.

Rose let her muscles remember how to move and refused to think about the majesty of the crown as she removed it from his head. She placed it in his lap; marveling and how smooth it felt to the touch. It was almost like water, diamond water.

She then played with his hair, gently massaging her hands over his still slightly damp scalp.

She missed this... she missed him.

She was deliberately not looking at her mother. She wanted it to just be the two of them, in the TARDIS library, on a lazy night in. The Doctor would tell her a story, and they would sit there contentedly, and just be.

The Doctor didn't have a book in front of him. But that didn't stop him from telling Rose a story.

“It wasn't too long after my timeline caught up and I was able to properly search for Gallifrey, that I found it. It was nothing like I ever imagined it would be, finding it. It was located on a planet that was once going to be my burial sight, but I changed that, like other things. Or really, Clara changed that, she really did a lot for me...”

He tired off. Rose didn't want to be rude, and fought the little five-year-old monster inside of her that wanted to shout at him to shut up about this Clara girl, and focus instead that the Doctor owed this girl his life and by extension, so did she now.

The Doctor gave his head a little jerk beneath Rose's fingers, and she moved them away, resting them on her side.

The Doctor leaned his head back to look at her upside down and gave her a crooked little smile.

Rose smiled back. She knew that look. She continued playing with his hair and he relaxed against her legs, sighing contentedly.

“There was this huge war. I ended up growing old there... again. I got very old. That place became a third home to me, and I became very fond of it. I protected that world against all my old enemies and some new. But then came the day I was too old to fight. I knew that was the moment I was going to die and I could do nothing but accept it. But Clara, she...” he gave a little chuckle.

“She told them off, the lot of them! Told them if they ever cared about me they would help me and not let me die. And they honestly did! They gave me a whole new regeneration cycle. And with it, some new tricks.”

He didn’t elaborate on what "tricks" meant, but they all knew. That must be how he got his strange new powers.

“Regenerated again after that, died of old age again. The life I lived after that was... Interesting to say the least. Clara traveled with me for a long time after that. Honestly, it was one of the first times someone stopped traveling with me because they were too old. She got married you see, had children. It became really hard to travel with her after that, but I still visited until she died, and even now I still see her boy David all the time. He's my Godson. That was new for me, we don't have those here, but I think we should, I love it! Anyway, all the while that this was happening with Clara, Gallifrey was trying to get back to its own feet. It wasn't doing so well. It was out of commission for a long time and things were different. The people had all seen real horrors and it made everyone a little less stuck up about it all. I’m not sure why, maybe I just didn’t want to see it at first, but it took me a while to realize that they kept coming to me and asking me things, getting advice, making me come back to do this and that. It was only when they wouldn’t even make a law without asking me first that I just decided to demand an explanation.”

He looked solemn for a moment, but it vanished very quickly, to be replaced by a barely audible sigh. “Be careful what you wish for,” he whispered softly.

The Doctor paused in his story. He stared hard at the crown in his lap, frowning at it. As if it was the cause of all his problems instead of the infinite glory it exuded.

No one interrupted him, and they sat in peaceful silence, trying to process the vast amounts that he was telling them at once.

“I traveled, more than anyone; I had real experience, more than anyone…” His voice was robotic and he spoke in a monotone that sounded rehearsed, copied. It didn’t sound like his voice at all.

“I saved more lives than anyone,” he all but spat. “I felt more than anyone, I was more powerful than anyone, I was cleverer than anyone, I was always right, I was the one who saved Gallifrey, and countless other places, I was the one who everyone wanted, and this apparently meant that I had no choice. At least, all that was the list of reasons they gave me. But sometimes, I'm still not convinced that they aren’t just scared of my power. They never exactly “gave” me my enhancement of my general Time Lord psychic-ness. You see, when a Time Lord turns one thousand, there is a change. Honestly, it’s kind of similar to your human puberty thing.”

Jack laughed and mouthed thing?

“Depending on the Time Lord, and depending on his natural state of ability, brainpower, excreta, his or her psychic ability can enhance or something else could change. That being said, it is extremely uncommon for what happened to me to happen...ever! There were only ever three people that gained that kind of enhanced abilities. Me, the Master, and Rassilon himself. With me being the only living one now…well, who’s left to overthrow me?” He added bitterly.

They were silent for a moment. Jack broke it first.

“So, does that mean you’ve had this ability for a while now?”

The Doctor shook his head, staring deeply at his crown again.

“No, I always had the potential for it, probably something to do with my unique brain. But I fought it, I didn’t want it, and when I hit my thousandth birthday, I hid myself away and did…well, a lot of things that I shouldn’t have, to try and dormant it. But once I got the new cycle… everything I did to bury my potential enhancement came undone as well…”

He looked up sharply; Rose took her hands off of him in alarm and for the first time he seemed not to notice. She couldn’t see his face, only the back of his head. But judging from Jack’s concerned frown and the way the Doctor’s voice cracked when he said well, she knew, she just knew that he was fighting back tears.

Rose made up her mind. She let go of all her doubts about whether he was her Doctor or not and just slid down from the sofa, and pulled him into a tight hug.

He returned the embrace fervently, but he did not start sobbing. But then Rose really didn’t think he would. Instead, he stared hard, unfocused at what seemed to be something only he could see.

“So, they made you do it, take the job I mean?” Jack said, barely above a whisper. Changing the subject away from the Doctor’s telekinesis.

The Doctor nodded into Rose’s blouse, refusing to give up the comfort of being in her arms.

“But, it can’t be so bad, righ’? I mean,” Jackie waved her arms around at all the splendor of the grand room, “what’s so bad about being king or whatever you are?”

The Doctor gently pushed himself away from Rose but didn’t move far. He placed his hands in hers and straightened his back.

“What’s wrong Jackie,” he began voice suddenly calm. “Is that I never wanted this, I hate being in this position, I hate people saluting me and watching after my every move, nothing gets done without me saying so. Do you know how frustrating that is? I don’t have all the answers you know, and if I make a mistake, it’s the kind of mistake that can cost lives. And I know I’ve been living that way for ages already, but I don’t want…I don’t want the cost to be my own people’s lives…not again….It’s so stifling. I got to control my regenerations after my 13th, but what was the point in becoming what I wanted, if I could never express anything other than the proper etiquette of a king and always be perfectly presentable.”

His voice changed pitch, and became much higher and mocking as he said the last two lines.

“No, I like wearing what I like, doing what I like, and going where I like. And that’s the worst part, isn’t it? I can’t bloody leave here! I can’t leave my duties even for a day. I never felt so trapped in my own skin before, and I’ve literally been trapped in my own skin before, not fun let me tell you.”

“You can’t travel? Ever?” Rose tried to imagine the Doctor not traveling around in the TARDIS was like trying to imagine a friendly Dalek, it just didn’t happen.

He nodded, grimly.

She suddenly understood him completely. This was her Doctor. This is what happened to him when he couldn’t even be himself. She could tell moments of solitude like this were rare for him. It must have been the first time he felt like he could really open up in a long time. If everyone here was as stuffy as they seemed, then he could never lose face in front of anyone. She imagined what it would be like to always wear a mask, to never get close to anyone because they were too busy idolizing you, to be forced to hold on to that idolization to maintain authority. She shuddered, even thinking about it made her feel lonely and depressed.

She thought of the annoyed look the Doctor had when he had to pull his hood down, and when everyone saluted him. It was all so un-Doctor-ish, that it made Rose’s heart twinge painfully with pity.

“But can’t you just, ya know, quit?” Rose asked gently.

The Doctor sighed deeply. “Yeah, I technically can, but…well… it’s really complicated. I know I’m the only one who can make this place better. So I keep telling myself that once I’m done, once everything is the way it always should have been, people will get used to the new ways.”

He looked suddenly hopeful. “And when that happens, the planet will be set in its new ways and I can nominate someone else to take over for me. Then, and only then I can fully resign with no regrets or hard feelings. Then I can leave Gallifrey in peace and trust it to stay that way and continue my travels.” He smiled, “but this time, I’ll have a place to return to, and not as the last of my kind. I won’t be running away this time.”

His hopeful expression vanished quickly, replaced by an almost depressed one. “But that is going to be in a very long time. I hope I still have a regeneration or two left by then. I’m not sure I want to devote all the rest of my lives to here. My passion is and always will be traveling. And here I am only helping one place. I am making up my debt for making the wrong choice the first time around… sort of…”

“Come on, but there really must be something good about it, right?” Jack egged.

“Well, I did make a LOT of deals and arrangements.” The Doctor sneered slyly.

“Like what?” Jack egged him onto the happier topic.

The Doctor jumped at the chance. “I’m proud of this one! My authority can be questioned, but if no one gives me a better reason for why something can’t be done, then my rule wins out every time no matter what. Trust me when I say that’s unheard of in this culture. When I said to open up to trade and tourism, everyone thought I was mad, but because no one gave a good reason why not, I got what I wanted, and now we are thriving. Gallifrey is part of a galaxy, not just lording over it. Our neighbors like us for the first time ever, and our economy and trade has never been better. And due to all our new consumers, all the children here are being raised in an entirely new atmosphere. They aren’t just around natives and that is helping to slowly drown out the initial prejudices that everyone here seems to just be born with.”

He grinned like a puppy who was just given a snack.

“They said it was my wisdom and experience that gave me that kind of knowledge. All the presidents before me were pretty much the same and Gallifreyan laws, customs, and our culture has been practically stuck in time. Ironic huh?”

He didn’t wait for an answer and just prowled on instead.

“One of the first things I did was to get rid of the No Human laws. Humans weren’t allowed on Gallifrey before, did you know? And now apparently, they are being transported here to use our prisons.”

His eyes became dark like a shadow was cast over his face.

“Apparently, all-time law violations come here. I worked hard to make it so.”

His voice got lower, more animal-like, and more dangerous. “But I am also working on making our prisons ten times better than they ever were. We have regulations here, on how to treat prisoners, and they… they perverted it, just because you’re human.”

He spat. They hate humans; they are still so very closed-minded, even after more than a century of the new rules.

Then the Doctor capriciously replaced all his weariness in a way that only the Doctor ever could. The shadow vanished as if it were never there, to be replaced by an old look. A very old look. His eyes shone with wisdom far beyond the years of his face.

It always was a shock to her to see him look his age. Rose constantly forgot just how ancient he really was. He made it so easy to forget as well; as if he wanted people to forget.

Rose remembered the Doctor yelling at the men on the stairs. She remembered how they had flinched and looked scared of him.

Was he yelling at them about that?

She understood Gallifreyan now, but it was weird. Though the language was in her head, she didn’t understand it at the time, and therefore she couldn’t remember what they were saying. In her memory, she could only hear a jumble of sounds, exactly how it sounded to her when she first heard it, before understanding. She could only recall the smooth loopy-ness of the sounds, almost like the writing of it.

Like clockwork, she thought.

Rose squeezed the Doctor’s hand reassuringly. He looked up gratefully, but she could still see the guilt behind his eyes.

He looked at her seriously, and said, “I am really sorry about what was done to you. I really am. I-“

“Shh, it’s okay, none of us blame you.”

She had no way of knowing for sure if that was true, but if it wasn’t, no one corrected her.

Before he could respond, a knock at the door made them all jump, although not as much as the Doctor did.

He leaped up in one motion, and in almost a blur of limbs, he was standing tall with his crown perched neatly back in place. He wiped his face with the back of his hand, then paused for a second, taking a deep breath.

Then he took the crown off again, looked at his reflection in it, and then put it back on, satisfied that his eyes were no longer red and puffy. He straightened his perfect robes as if sitting on the floor had crinkled them somehow.

Rose realized only as he stood, that he was wearing really odd golden shoes that rose up in the front by the toes. It was like he had golden toes that curled up and into a spiral above the rest of his foot. It looked really ugly, but somehow also beautiful and fitting.

He crossed in the room in a powerful but elegant gait. He gently touched the doorknob and then stood back as the door swung open slowly revealing the woman who had brought them their food cart before.

Upon seeing the Doctor, she bowed deeply and only straightened up when he gave her the okay to do so.

Even though Rose knew more of the details now, it was still odd seeing that happen before her eyes, and she shifted on the floor uncomfortably.

She imagined the woman’s flashing glance to be a facade to her thoughts, believing her to surely be thinking something along the lines of, faintly human, and, good, let them appear lower than us and sit on the floor.

By the time she realized the woman hadn't even properly entered the room before her hasty exit, she understood that her imagination was getting the best of her again.

She needed time alone to process everything that had just happened and that she had just been told. But she would not take it; even should the moment arise, unless she could guarantee that the Doctor would still be there when she was ready. It was her biggest fear, to have him, and lose him... again.

The Doctor pushed in a second silver food cart and slid it next to the first one. If it was possible, the silver wear on this cart, made the one before it look like an old wooden spoon.

The Doctor looked thoughtfully at the two karts.

“Hm,” he said. “I thought I had canceled my usual dinner. Oh well,” he shrugged, “guess not. But honestly, did you lot have enough to eat? Because there is more and I can't possibly eat this all on my own."

It took a moment for Rose to register what he had said.

“Sorry, did you say dinner?”

He nodded, pausing his inspection of some kind of bright green and purple looking ball. He placed it back into a bowl full of identical items and sat back on the floor, this time leaning against his desk, looking expectant.

Rose sighed, resigned to her fate. She picked up the ball on its greener side and assuming it was some type of fruit, bit into it with gusto.

He raised his eyebrows, silently asking for her opinion.

A burst of intense, juicy flavor pooled onto her tongue. She moaned in pleasure, then blushed once she registered that the strange little sound had come from her.

The Doctor chuckled. “See, not poison then?”

Jack shrugged and picked up a ball and threw it to Jackie. She fumbled and nearly missed it, but managed to catch it last minute. She frowned at him but bit into it tentatively none the less.

Her face lit up I'm a matching expression of Rose’s delight. Then, without a word, fervently proceeded to devour the rest of the strange fruit.

Rose was halfway done with her Fruit ball when she reached the purple side and gave a little gasp of surprise. “The colors are different flavors?” She exclaimed.

It came out like a question, even though she meant it as a surprised statement.

“Yup,” the Doctor said, throwing one up and down, still leaning on the desk. He didn't eat anything though.

“What did you expect; fruit to be only one flavor at a time? Nah, that's an earth thing. Our fruits have many flavors at a time, more fun that way.”

He praised it as if he was responsible for the planet’s vegetation. But she wouldn't be surprised if he somehow revealed that he was, what with all the bomb sells he dropped by them so far that day.

He turned and looked fondly out of the massive French windows. Rose could see the light on the left side fading, but though it was dimming toward the left, the right side remained brightly fixed.

“Doctor?”

“Hm?” He hummed without turning his view from the window.

“Why did it, I mean how I'd it-“

He turned to meet her eyes, and her words failed her. The light from the right side of the window hit his eyes.

The eyes that were undoubtedly, irrevocably, the eyes of her Doctor. Eyes that were wary yet full of life.

She swallowed a lump in the back of her throat and forced herself not to look away.

“Two suns.” He said simply.

“Sorry,” Jackie blurted, now finished her first fruit and reaching over for a second, “but are you sayin’ this place ‘as two suns? Like earth suns bu’...two?”

For a moment Rose wondered why that was so shocking. Sure it was interesting, beautiful, and it finally solved the odd lighting mystery, but-

“Oh,” she breathed.

That's right; Jackie had never been to another planet before. This was the first time she was ever truly off of planet earth, and her first planet was Gallifrey of all places.

Rose secretly wished her first planet was also Gallifrey, not because of the planet itself, but she wanted her first planet, something special to her, to be something also special to the Doctor.

“Hang on, so what's a day here?” Jack inquired curiously.

“Thought you'd never ask!”

Any chance to show off made the Doctor practically bounce off the walls in his best imitation of a newborn puppy.

“Days here a much much longer than on earth. And our nights are much shorter, makes sense, it's not like we need as much sleep as you humans and you can see why. We were literally not made for it.”

“So what's dinner time or how does... I'm not even sure how to ask that.” Jack grinned sheepishly. “Oh well.”

“S'okay,” he shrugged. “Dinner isn't really a time here. It's more of, I haven't had a meal in such and such hours and that means its dinner. We also have three meals a day, but we still eat less than humans, because the time span we have those meals in is much larger than yours.”

“Okay, we get it you know?” Jack said starkly. “Time Lord superior biology, yadda ya.” He rolled his eyes, but he was grinning.

The Doctor feigned ignorance. “Why Captain Jack Harkness, whatever do you mean?”

“If you boys are done flirting…” Rose teased.

The Doctor gave an indignant huff and Jack laughed.

This was peaceful. This was right. This was how it used to be, how it should always be, and how she wished it would never stop being.

Why do all good things come to an end?

Why indeed.

But for once, she was just happy to truly savor the moment and focus all her energy on trying to retain every detail of it in her memory forever.


	6. Chapter Six

It wasn’t long before one of the suns had fully set, giving the view a dimmer but still brightly lit atmosphere that cast small shadows on the walls. All the food had been eaten and they were all sitting in variations around the sofa, patting their full bellies and smiling contentedly.

And to think only hours ago she was beginning to lose hope that she would ever leave that awful jail. To think that she couldn’t remember what it felt like to be full, when now in complete contrast she couldn’t remember how she was ever hungry...almost. It would take time to actually forget.

The Doctor omitted to mention how phenomenal the food was on Gallifrey. Maybe he would miss it too much if he talked about it?

They sat in silence, letting their bodies adjust to their new fullness and lack of stress. It was funny how much peace the Doctor brought them simply by being there.

After a little while, the Doctor stood up and stretched with an audible, popping sound coming from his shoulder blades.

“All right, you lot?” He said in a half yawn.

Rose gave a sleepy nod, trying to fight off thoughts of where she would be going to bed that night versus where she wanted to go to bed that night.

Whatever night was on this planet anyway.

In the prison they had never had a chance to sync up to the time frame here, without windows or clocks it was kind of hard to anyway, but after hearing the Doctor explain how long the days here were she doubted she would have been physically able to regardless.

“I better get moving, people get antsy if I don’t appear for too long.”

The three humans stood as well. The Doctor eyed them all thoughtfully for a moment before he led the way and waved them to follow him once more.

“I’ll show you some spare rooms I have that you can use.” He sighed, “But, just… please be careful okay? Most of what’s in them is not mine, well, to be honest, all of it isn’t mine. This place doesn’t exactly have guest rooms; you’d first need guests for that. But I do have rooms for the overnight guards.”

“So where will they stay if we take their rooms?” Jack asked.

The Doctor dismissed the concern with another wave. “Oh, you don’t need to worry about that. Trust me, it's fine.”

“What about you? Where will you be?” She hated the way her voice sounded so lost and desperate, but she didn’t want to leave him, not yet. She could fight off her itching eyes, her slow and heavy steps, and her stupefied brain; if it would make sure he stayed.

He winked at her.

She blinked in surprise but then turned away to hide her blush.

“Like I said, don’t worry. I’m mostly staying in this building anyway and seeing as I do live here…”

“Come off it, stayin’ ‘ere is one thin’, but you really live ‘ere? I mean, properly live ‘ere?” Jackie scoffed, unable to understand why or how someone would live in such an overzealous and over-stimulating place.

“Oi! What’s wrong with it then? I know it’s a bit…flashy, and I didn’t exactly get a say in a lot of the décor, but the part of this place that’s mine, actually mine, well that’s not so bad is it?”

Jackie shook her head as if to say, mad, completely mad.

The Doctor ignored her.

They exited the Doctor’s office/living space and back into the massive grand entrance hall. They walked down, trailing close behind the Doctor’s thin frame and trying to keep pace with his fast gait through their own sluggishness.

The dimmer lighting made all the decorative tables cast elongated shadows that crept up the walls, hiding the faces of those in the photos, making them look sinister.

He turned down a corridor and led them into a lift. Rose couldn’t tell how far they went, or even if they traveled upwards or down, but within only a moment, they strode out onto a much more basic landing then from which they departed. She wished they could’ve used this lift when they first arrived, but she was sure that the Doctor had a reason for it.

The deep rich red carpet was bold, no patterns, and the walls were almost completely bare aside from the occasional weapon harness.

It was hard to imagine the Doctor living comfortably in a place that adorned giant medieval-looking axes and thin but long objects that Rose couldn’t begin to identify.

They crossed the corridor and came across a series of modest identical black doors, the only difference of which was a brass number in the dead center.

“Here we are then, now how do you want it? Rose do you want to be alone, or Jackie, do you want to be with Rose, or alone, or… what?”

Rose glanced at her mother. She didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but after being cramped up with her mother and Jack for the past three days she was more than ready for her own space and a bed.

“Sorry Mum, but do ya mind?”

To her surprise, her mother looked a bit relieved.

“Not at all sweet’eart. I just wan’ed to see if you would ask, but I t’ink we can all do with a proper lie in, and then we can try and make sense of all t’is madness.”

She turned to address the Doctor who was casually leaning against a door marked with a large number fifteen. He looked completely out of place with his elaborate royal garb, clashing incongruously with the plain black on the door.

“The person whose room this is, they’re not just gonna come up h’ere and… I don’t know, kick us out or some’it?”

He chuckled. “No, no, no, nothing like that. I told you, leave it to me and I’ll take care of it.”

He suddenly clapped his hands and rubbed them together, making Rose jump out of her drowsy haze.

“Right! Allll right. Now, stay in your rooms, lock the doors for everyone but me, and I’ll either come to collect you later or get someone appointed to do it. Alright?”

“If we can’t open the door for anyone but you, then how will we know whoever you appointed is really, as you say, appointed?”

The Doctor gave Jack a pointed look. “Fine, they will have to say these words exactly.”

He looked over Jack really seriously, as if he was about to impart some great wisdom upon him, then he whispered loudly, “Trust me and go to bed.”

Before anyone could say another word, he flipped out his sonic screwdriver from some pocket Rose couldn’t see, opened the three closest doors, turned on his heel, and walked away with a passing, “sleep well.”

Rose stared at his retreating form, trying hard not to believe that this was the last time she would see him.

He promised to be back soon. He lives here.

But no matter how crazy it sounded or how probable his return, his loss still hurt too much for her to feel secure in a reunion with him, unless he was actively standing beside her. The loss of that action left her feeling hollow and even more drained than before.

A hand gently squeezed her shoulder, and without turning, she held the hand on top of her shoulder and squeezed back reassuringly.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me.”  
“But I do Rose, and I always will. It’s ma job to worry abou’ you.”

Rose turned her head half full of thoughts of the bed in her near future. She forced a smile that she knew her mum could see through.

“Really, I’ll see you in the morning.” She paused, “or whatever passes for morning here.”

She gave her mother a quick kiss goodnight on the cheek, waved a quick goodbye to Jack who was for once too tired to make any comment such as, don’t I also get a Kiss, and walked through the door the Doctor was just leaning against.

Once inside and alone, she threw off her shoes, and fully dressed, plopped down onto the bed, promising her battered and decrepit body a proper washdown first thing upon awakening.

She still felt bad for her breakdown before. She supposed now, having a moment to think about it more deeply, that she was just in shock. The Doctor had piled so much on them all so fast, it was no wonder she felt doubtful about everything, even his identity. It wasn’t so much that she didn’t believe he was the Doctor, just if he was going to be very different from the man she loved.

She was scared to death that the man she loved was dead. But she realized, after spending the day with him, he was still her Doctor, through and through.

As he had said, a little younger-looking, older in age though, less anger, bitterness, and sadness.

That was good, he deserved all of this. All the glory that he’d never admit to liking (even if it was just a small part of him) all the company, she wasn’t sure about the riches. He genuinely never seemed to care for that stuff and judging by the way he handled his crown, he still didn’t.

Her body was exhausted but her mind swam with all the new information she was forced to absorb in such a short amount of time.

The Doctor was back.

He was really back.

He is powerful in so many ways.

She imagined how different all their adventures would have been if he had access to all he had now, then.

It would have been very different she decided. With that mind thing he can do, they could have saved so many people.

How powerful was it anyway? Did the Doctor think about that himself?

He must have. And knowing him, he felt responsible tenfold for each death and guilty for forcing himself to get rid of something he never even wanted in the first place.

She rolled over and yawned widely. She remembered earlier when the Doctor had kissed her and she smiled into her pillow, forgetting about everything else for a moment and letting that simple memory fill her with warmth, love, happiness, and content.

With that thought in mind, Rose Tyler fell fast asleep at once.


	7. Chapter Seven

There was a muffled pounding sound. Rose grumbled for it to go away, five more minutes, anything to not have to get up and face being in that cold cell again.

Wait…cold?

Why was she so warm, and…comfortable?

Rose’s eyes shot open as the events of the previous day flew into her mind. She jumped up with a smile.

She was going to see the Doctor again today.

She was still fully dressed, and filthy. Her oily and dirt clogged hair stuck out unattractively in odd angles, but she didn’t care.

At least not yet. Not when her beloved Doctor was at the door calling for-.

Hang on, that wasn’t the Doctor’s voice. It was a stranger.

A stranger speaking in Gallifreyan.

The Doctor wouldn’t do that to her, he would keep speaking in English, just as he did even after he implanted the language into their brains.

At least whatever the Doctor did to put the language into their heads was still working. It would be nice to learn everything so easily.

But the question was still there, and it was one that made her heart speed up, and her tongue licked her dry teeth in anticipation as she slowly crept towards the door.

Lock the doors for everyone but me.

She pressed her ear to the door, wishing it had a peephole.

Whoever was behind it was mumbling in annoyance, and rocking back and forth on the soles of his or her feet, judging by the shadows through the crack between door and floor.

The person knocked again and a male voice called out, “Miss Tyler if you please, would you come and take this?”

She had no idea what “this” was. It could be anything. Maybe this man was the guard she had taken this room from? She glanced guiltily at the now filthy bedspread, freshly strewed all over the floor in her haste to get to the door. She hoped that it wouldn’t be a problem.

But the Doctor said he’d take care of everything, right?

She shook her head in answer to the man’s question, forgetting that he couldn’t see her.

“No,” she said in a small voice.

“Excuse me?”

She realized that she had spoken in English. She was used to her words being translated automatically by the TARDIS, and it would take some getting used to, trying to speak a second language. English was the only one she ever really knew until now, the only one she ever stored in her brain.

She cleared her throat and went over how to say what she wanted in Gallifreyan in her mind before she said it.

“I said no,” she repeated, stronger this time. “I was told not to open this door for anyone but the Doctor.”

When the Doctor spoke Gallifreyan, he had sounded almost like he was singing. The smooth tones flowed melodically from his gentle lips. However, when Rose spoke it, she sounded harsh, ruff, and forced to her own ears. Nothing like what the Doctor, or even this man before her, sounded like.

Maybe that was part of the accent?

Yet another thing she never had to care about before.

She intentionally left out the part about the Doctor possibly sending someone, thinking the man could just claim to be that very someone based solely on her words.

She heard a sigh, and something that sounded like, not again. Before she heard heels clicking as if he was standing at attention. Then he said in a monotone, that sounded tired and rehearsed, but mostly annoyed, “Trust me and go to bed.”

Rose laughed and opened the door.

Trust the Doctor to take his own antics so seriously. She was just glad this man had understood her accent.

The man was wearing the same red robes that everyone else had. It seemed to be the standard uniform, but he had golden sashes that crossed each of his shoulders.

He was holding out a bundle of something bright red and pink to her.

She took it attentively.

The moment the parcel was removed from her hands, the guard bowed lightly and left without a word.

She closed the door again, making sure to lock it. Then she unfolded the garment across her bedspread.

It was a robe. A long, silky, bright pink, and red robe. An odd choice of color combinations, but somehow fitting for this place. It was much slimmer than the ones all the men seemed to wear.

She smiled to herself. Now at least she had something clean to change into.

The room had three doors to it. One was the entrance, the second, a spacious closet mostly filled with red robes (did these people ever wear anything else), and lastly, a bathroom, complete with shower and towels. Rose had never been so happy to see a bathroom before in all her life, and she was even happier to find that the bathroom looked mostly like the ones she was used to on Earth.

She chose to never think about her less than pleasant experiences of how she had to do her business in the jail and decided to enjoy what was going to be the best and longest shower of her life.

she stripped off her clothes. They were so tattered that she had to peel them back, layer by layer. She avoided the mirror but couldn’t avoid the state of filth her limbs and chest were in. The water was the perfect temperature on the first try. Rose stepped in and moaned in pleasure as the water soothed her tired and sore muscles. She stayed like that for a while, praying the hot water wouldn’t run out. Then again, she mussed, she was essentially living in the king’s home. She doubted the hot water could ever run out based on the previous glamour she’d witnessed.

She couldn’t escape following that thought until it’s doom. She stood frozen, transfixed while her brain scrambled to remember everything the Doctor had told her. As hard as she tried, she could only remember bits and pieces of his long explanation. She needed to hear it again. Maybe even more than that. She recovered enough to mindlessly go through the motions of taking a shower. Her mind never quitted.

*****  
Rose was admiring her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She finally had the courage to use it, only once she became presentable.

She had just finished showering, and brushing her hair with a brush she found in the bathroom mirror. She hoped whoever owned the brush wouldn’t mind. She was dying to brush her teeth and put on some makeup, but she was more than grateful to finally feel mostly clean and scrubbed free of all the grim and soot her body seemed to have magnetized in the jail.

She had just put on the strangely colored robe, and she was checking herself out.

The robe fit her very snugly, but not uncomfortably so. It clung nicely to her curves and the bright colors brought out the blond shade of her hair. She could tell that she lost weight while in prison, she was sure that this wouldn’t have fit her this well beforehand.

She put on her flats that she was wearing since she arrived on this planet, but threw her socks away. They were disgusting, and the smell emanating from it was even worse. In addition to her socks, she also chucked the rest of her clothes out as she had previously promised herself that she would. It felt satisfying to be able to be in control of her own choices again.

She gave herself a pleasing nod of approval at her reflection and left the bathroom. She enjoyed the instant cooling sensation that she got from walking from a streamed room to the bedroom, and even more so when she could fully appreciate being clean.

She made the bed and straighten up the room as best she could, trying to remember exactly how it was before she tampered with it.

She was glad she wouldn’t need her old decrepit clothes anymore, not with her new robe. She wasn’t sure she was willing to admit it or not, but she was starting to get the appeal of the robes, especially when they weren’t all red. They did have a certain comfort and style to them, and she really liked the way it looked on her and the way it felt when on.  
Not as much as I like it on him though, she thought slyly.

She knocked on the door her mother was in, and a hushed, “who’s there,” could be heard from behind the door.

“It’s just me Mum, are you about and ready?”

The door swung open revealing Jackie in a similar state to Rose. She was freshly showered and wearing a pale pink robe.

Rose thought it suited her nicely. Her mother really was beautiful. Her robe didn’t cling to her as tightly as Rose’s did, but she could still make out that she wasn’t the only one who lost weight.

She frowned at her mother’s stomach, remembering the hunger her mum had to go through.

She shook off the thought as she entered the room, locking the door behind her.

“D’you like it?” Jackie said, doing a little spin to show Rose the full extent of her Robe.

Rose nodded, “yeah, the color really suits you.”

Jackie looked pleased, as she joined Rose sitting on the bed.

The room looked hardly touched; the large bed was made with the deep red coverlet perfectly stretched over the mattress. The matching curtains were drawn over large French windows, and the only other furniture in the room was the bedside table and a matching wooden wardrobe. It was identical to Rose’s room.

She was really beginning to wonder if they had any individuality. They all seemed to wear the same clothes and sleep in the same rooms. Or maybe it was just these particular people. Maybe it was something to do with being a guard. She thought of the guards outside of Buckingham Palace. How they were all identical, stoic, and she realized, maybe these guards weren’t so different after all. Maybe she finally found some common ground here.

“It’s so good to just ter take a shower ya know? But I’d still kill for a cuppa.” Her mum sighed deeply, undoubtedly fantasying about drinking a hot cup of tea.

Rose laughed gently. “I bet you would.”

Her mom smiled at her, meeting her eyes.

They stayed that way for a moment. Jackie bushed a stray hair behind Rose’s ear.

I’m so glad you’re out of ‘hat place.” Jackie looked serious, but her voice was gentle. Jackie couldn’t know how much Rose agreed. Not only about being out of a psychical place, but the emotional ground she tried to navigate yesterday. It was amazing what a simple night’s sleep and a shower could do for your mind.

She sighed, “I guess I owe ‘im for that. It seems I'm forever owin’ that man.”

Before they could say anything more, there was a knock at the door.

Rose and Jackie exchanged a nervous glance. Then Rose slowly got up and crept over to the door.

She didn’t have a chance to even ask who it was before the Doctor’s voice called out in hushed tones, “Rose, are you in there? It’s me.”

She grinned broadly and opened the door at once. The Doctor stood proudly, beaming at her.

“Oh, I knew this one would be just right for you.”

She smiled flirtatiously. “Do you like it?”

She spun around to show him the full extent of her robe that was beginning to feel more like a dress.

“I really do.”

He laughed, and she beamed back.

They were interrupted by Jack appearing behind the Doctor.

“Hey Doc, I’m not so sure about these ro-“

He paused as he looked up at Rose.

“Well hello there, you.”

He took her hand and gave it a little kiss. The Doctor rolled his eyes and Rose blushed, but more from the Doctor’s reaction than to Jack’s affections.

Jackie however, burst out laughing. “’Hat are you suppose’ to be then? A Christmas tree?”

To his credit, Jack played along. “Then I’ll be the one everyone fights over on Christmas eve.”

Turning to the Doctor he wined, “but come on, do I really have to wear this? Green is so not my color.”

“That,” said the Doctor pointedly, “is exactly why I chose that for you. I figured you’ll have a harder time flirting your way around in that.”

Jack looked completely affronted, “challenge accepted!” He declared.

The Doctor facepalmed with a groan. “Oh boy…”

“You picked all these out?” Rose asked.

“Yup. What do you think?”

Rose nodded enthusiastically, “there really good. I mean, aside from Jack’s. It’s strange, I never thought that pink and red would go together so well, but they do. Time Lords really have strange fashion sense though.”

“Admit it though, your beginning to like it aren’t you?”

Rose gently nudged him in the arm as a reply.

“Right, well, here’s the thing.” His grin suddenly faded and he peered over them seriously. “Tomorrow you’ll have to go. I arranged for a team to take you back to earth in your correct dimension or adopted, your choice, and –"

“You can’t!”

He blinked at her.

Rose didn’t back down. “I just found you again, and this time, this time Doctor, I’m not leaving you. And I’m not letting you just drop me off somewhere, you can’t!”

“Rose,” he began slowly, the way one might approach a wild beast. “Rose, you…” he broke off, frowned, took a deep breath, and tried again.

“Rose, I can’t leave here.” He gestured to his royal garb and crown. “I kind of have responsibilities here, whether I like it or not, and I can’t… I can’t abandon my people… not again,” he added quietly.

Rose took his hand. He didn’t say anything; he just watched her holding him. “Doctor, isn’t it obvious?”

He looked quizzical. “If you can’t leave, then I’ll stay.”

She was surprised when her mother stayed silent at her declaration. But then again, her mother had been unusually quiet since they reunited with the Doctor.

Maybe she always knew it was leading to this.

The Doctor had his concentrating hard face on. No doubt working out if it was possible for her to stay or not.

At last, he said, “Rose, please, listen.”

She shook her head. “No Doctor, I don’t wanna hear how it’s not good for me, or I’ll be safer, happier, whatever. I need to be with you. I… you don’t understand how it feels to be away from you… I…” she sniffed loudly, and took a large gulping breath.

He regarded her sympathetically. “Don’t. Just don’t.”

She was surprised to see his eyes glisten.

“I didn’t…I just…”

“Every day,” he blurted, surprising her. “Every single damn day! I thought of you. Every single thing I did, I always thought, always, if Rose were here, what would she say? If Rose could see me pass this law, what would she think, if she was-“

He stopped, breathing heavily. He seemed too worked up to continue.

After a minute he muttered, “Just… just don’t.”

Rose hugged him, and he hugged her back tightly. Putting in all the pain and longing he had for her into it.

they stayed that way for a beat. Suspended between entering Jackie’s room and the hallway. Jack shuffled his feet behind the Doctor in the hall. Rose reluctantly pulled apart. She needed him to see her face when she spoke next.

“Then let me stay. Please. I’ll stay anyway; it doesn’t matter, as long as I get to see you. It was never just about the traveling…not anymore.”

“You can’t, what about your home, your mum, my clone?”

She could tell that he wasn’t really trying to get her to change her mind; she knew he just had to be sure.

Some things never changed. She spent their first two years together assuring him of her loyalty and love to him, and he still doubted he was worthy of it.

She would change that.

“He died.”

A tear escaped her eye and she looked away. Not wanting to see the face of the other Doctor for a moment; wanting to remember John as he was.

She noticed that her mother went into the bathroom and Jack had left the hall, but she couldn’t recall the sound of the door opening.

That was nice of them… to give them privacy.

“I’m sorry,” he said gravely. “I didn’t… how?”

“How?” She chuckled darkly, “he was too much like you, that’s how. A weevil was an inch away from slashing Dad’s heart out, and instead… well, like I said.”

A few more tears burned through her eyes, falling calmly down while she was lost in a memory she would do anything to change.

“Too much like you…”

She sniffed loudly. “When he died, he told me to find you. Said he didn’t want me to be alone. He said he knew how much you… how much you loved me, and he knew how alone you’d be. Said you never really forgot me.”

“I’m sorry Rose, I’m so sorry. I knew that was always a possibility, with human life being so fragile, but I thought he’d at least have longer than that. Die of old age, it’s not much, but it’s a life.”

Rose wiped her tears on her new robes.

“But Rose, your mum, Pete, Tony, you’ll be leaving them. Would you really be okay with that?”

Rose took a deep breath and tried to shake the image of John with his throat mangled and bloodied from her mind.

“I made my choice a long time ago.”

“But I’ll be busy all the time, and people here don’t know how to react to humans, you’ll be an alien, an outcast.”

She sniffed and took a shuddering breath. “That never seemed to stop you, did it?”

“Rose,” he pressed voice hard. “Please, think about this.”

“I have Doctor, oh I have, every day, and every night.” She inched closer to him until she was only a mere few inches away.

“Every.”

She gently brushed her hand through his hair.

“Single.”

She inched her face closer and closer to his until she could feel his breath on her nose.

“Night.”

She kissed him, passionately. Reveling in the feel of him. His lips, his taste, his smell.

She had been waiting far too long for something that should have been done years ago.

He kissed her back. Just as fervently. Pouring all his lonely feelings, all his nights spent missing her as much as she was missing him, and all his pain, everything into his lips as he slid out his tongue, requesting entry.

She parted her lips, Deeping the kiss. Her hands flew to his hair, running her fingers frantically through it while he massaged his hands over her back.

They were lost in each other. Completely and utterly absorbed.

They only pulled apart when Rose broke away to breathe.

“Damn,” she panted. That was way more intense than the brief kiss they exchanged yesterday.

He was panting too, but grinning madly.

“If I,” he panted again, “if I let you stay…” he took another breath. “Blimey… does there get to more of that?”

“And more,” she hinted seductively.

“Rose, are you really su –“

“Yes!”

He grinned.

“I guess that’s it then huh?”

She gasped, “You mean?”

“Yeah”, he said still a little breathless. “If you’re really sure, you can stay.”

She screeched in delight and jumped back into the comfort and safety of his arms.

He lifted her up and twirled around.

When they broke apart he said, “mind you, your mother might have something else to say about it."

“Not sure that’s true.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“Think about it, she’s never been so quiet.”

“Hmm,” he put his hand on his chin, “your right. You think she expected this?”

“Yeah, she knows how I feel about you…plus this was kinda the whole reason for trying to jump back to our old dimension in the first place, ya know?”

The Doctor gave her a strange look at her words.

“What?”

“Even if leaving your family is something your honestly willing to do for me…?”

“Yes…?” she pressed on.

He shook his head. “But then, what about the age gap, all the things that have changed about me since we last met, all-“

“If I kiss you again, will you stop asking stupid questions?”

She meant it to be a light statement to simply show him how little she cared about all those trivial matters, but he brushed her off.

“Rose, this is serious. A lot has changed, I changed…”

“Doctor?”

He met her eyes.

“Do you still love me?”

“Rose…”

“Please, please. Just…answer me.”

He nodded, and she could see his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard. “Yeah, don’t be stupid, of course, I do.”

She grinned widely, tongue between her teeth. “That’s all I ever needed to know. Now unless you don’t want me here…?”

He shook his head violently, his crown wobbling dangerously.

“Don’t even joke. I just have to be sure Rose; you understand that, don’t you?”

She gave him a compassionate smile. “Of course I do Doctor, of course.”

They were silent for a moment. Both trying to take in their new reality of being together after so long being apart, they were finally back together. This time, for good.

“You know, maybe once I tell your mum how we can come to visit her any time, she’ll be more comfortable with all this.”

Rose gaped at him. “What! How I thought you can’t travel between dimensions?”

“Rose, think about it, how do you think they arrested you in the first place? They had to first travel to your dimension, and then back here.”

“But how is that possible?”

“Oh but that’s the best part!” He was practically jumping up and down in excitement.

Her heart rose at just seeing him so happy and like his old self.

“We can visit them any time now. Now that Gallifrey is back, we are able to monitor and control the flow of inter-dimensional travel, and the walls of the universe are reopened to those who have the power to use it.

Rose began to get excited too. “You mean we can visit them anytime? I get to stay here and I don’t have to lose anyone?”

“Yeah,” he grinned manically. “Mind you, I will not have a lot of off time, but you can always hitch a ride with someone else. And on all my off time I’ll be glad to join you.”

Rose couldn’t believe her ears. Was this all really happening? Half of her was frightened that she would wake up in that dungeon, to find that all this to be nothing more than a blissful dream.

“Then what the hell was all that stuff about me leaving my family forever?”

He turned his head away. “It’s still leaving them, Rose, just because it’s not forever, doesn’t mean it’s not leaving.”

She shook her head in disbelief. After everything, she had just said.

Later she thought. I’ll explain to him later what he said wrong. Because there would be a later. Many many laters.

She felt like her heart would explode with sheer joy.

“So that settles it, I’m staying, and you can’t get rid of me this time Mister."

“Oh,” the Doctor mockingly scoffed, “like I would ever want to do that?”

He pulled her into his arms once more and quickly transferred the hug into another type of display of his affection for her.


	8. Chapter Eight

“Don’t expect this often, it’s so rare that I get to leave Gallifrey like this, but…” the Doctor sighed, turning to face the control panel on his beloved ship. He caressed the controls fondly.

“It’s just; she needs to get out too, so it’s a good excuse. Plus she won’t let anyone else fly her, not really. In fact,” the Doctor frowned. “She’s been more temperamental than ever lately, comes with being cooped up I suppose. I’m really surprised she even let you in Jack. Jack?”

“Hmm?” Jack looked up from across the console room, pausing his intense pouring over of their arrest file.

“I said,” the Doctor repeated exasperatedly, “Oh, never mind. Why are you so absorbed in that anyway?”

“Because,” Jack began slowly. “Because I’m interested to know why they treated us like such criminals when we only unknowingly did a crime.”

“I still can’t believe we were arrested just for trying to build a replica of Jack’s vortex manipulator, I mean, it worked didn’t it? Mum and I were able to finally jump across the dimension.”

The Doctor flinched, no doubt still feeling guilty over their treatment. Rose interlocked her fingers with his. “It’s okay, it wasn’t your fault.”

His shoulders slumped, and his expression looked pained for only a brief moment before he replaced it quickly with a witty smile.

“Yeah, but that’s more the reason than anything. Dimension travel is illegal and so is assisting.” He eyed Jack as he said the last part.

Jack shrugged. “If Rose Tylor wanted the schematic to my manipulator the last time we were together, who am I to say no? Besides, that’s still not a good enough reason in my book.”

“Yeah, but that’s just them. They take stuff like trying to replicate a vortex manipulator very seriously. But think about it, if something like that fell into the wrong hands…but that’s not the point. They should have at least told you why you were being arrested, where you were, what was going on…feed you,” he added in a voice almost a snarl.

“I’m sure you’ll fix all that though Doc.”

The Doctor shook his head. “Not the point, I already spoke to Avast about that, now he is on his last warning. But then again, it wasn’t under his orders that the stray guards did that, and those responsible, he assured me, are being dealt with.”

Rose frowned. “Is Ava…Ave…A-“

“Avast.”

“Right, that bloke, was he that shorter guy who let you into our cell?”

Jackie looked surprised that Rose remembered such a thing. But the Doctor smiled and nodded.

“Yeah, he’s my head of prison maintenance and control.”

“Couldn’t find someone a bit more…qualified?” Jack wondered. “He was a bit on the stout, nervous side of the spectrum wasn’t he?”

”It’s really just his name for me,” Rose added. “I mean, what kind of name is that, he sounds like a virus protector.”

“Hey!” The Doctor pouted. “First off, I’ll have you know that it’s a nickname for something much longer and harder to pronounce, especially in English. And second, Names on Gallifrey are very different than your weird earth names. I mean you're one to talk.” He turned to Jack. “Jack? That just sounds weird to the tongue. Jack….Ja…ck…Ja-“

“Okay, I get it,” Jack huffed, looking back to the file in his hands.

“Then why the ‘ell am I mixed up in all ‘his? I didn’t ‘ave anythin’ to do with buildin’ it, I just wante’d to make sure my Rose was safe.”

“Ah, well, you see, the law as it stands now, well, they take anyone at the time of arrest as an accomplice.”

Jackie was visibly about to argue the injustice of such an action when the Doctor gave a hurried, “but I’m working on changing that!”

He held up his hands in defense. “You should’ve seen how messed up the entire book of Sacred and Most Interplanetary Laws of Rassilon was before I got to them. I’ve been at it for centuries and I’m not even halfway down the book!”

“So I was jus’ in the wrong place and the wrong time t’hen?” Jackie cried.

The Doctor tried to suppress a flinch again, but Rose felt his fingers tighten around hers for the briefest of seconds before they relaxed again.

“Well…yes…I’m really-“

“Oh it’s not’ your fau’t.” Jackie dismissed his almost apology with a wave of her hand.

He could have said thank you, he could have shown his appreciation, surprise, judgment, anger, anything Rose would have expected but the Doctor letting go of her hand, crossing the room, and giving Jackie Tyler a huge bone-crushing hug, was not one of them.

Rose laughed, and Jack even looked up again from the report.

“Ey, what you doin’?” Jackie said, pretending to be upset, but hugged him back, just as tightly.

After a moment, she said through his arms, “you take care of ‘er, ya ‘ear? You take good care of my Rose.”

They finally broke apart and the Doctor replied, “I promised you, didn’t I?”

Jackie regarded him sternly for a moment, before cracking a smile. “I know, and ya know ‘hat, t’is wouldn’t be happenin’ if I didn’t trust you.”

The Doctor was shocked. It wasn’t a look Rose was accustomed to seeing on him.

After he recovered, he pretended to straighten his perfect gem-studded robes. “Took you long enough.”

Jackie laughed and grabbed him into another hug, shorter this time.

“You take care’ of yourself too ya know? I don’t care’ if you got the universe to look afte’ or not, that’s no different than before’.”

“Heh, good point.” The Doctor said sincerely.

It was strange to see the Doctor and her mother get along so well, but Rose found she almost missed the bickering. Just for old times’ sake. But she was still glad that her mother understood and agreed.

Rose truly appreciated to the full extent how great a woman her mum was when she realized that Jackie was willing to let Rose stay, while she believed that it would mean never seeing her only daughter again.

It was times like that, that reminded her just how strong Jackie Tyler really was. It was one thing to raise a daughter all by yourself, to overcome the loss of your husband’s death, to deal with your daughter in constant danger, helpless to change her mind; but it was quite another to willingly give her up for her own happiness. Rose understood this as much as she could without being a mother herself, and the very thought filled her with love and a strong sense of belonging.

Jackie was ecstatic when the Doctor explained that it wasn’t goodbye, not forever anyway.

Maybe that’s when she warmed up to him?

Or was it instead when she had said, I’m never going to stop owing that man, am I?

“Does t’is mean my daug’ter is going to be queen of your planet or some’t?”

Rose started. She hadn’t thought of that. “Am I,” she questioned in wonderment?  
The Doctor had a strange look on his face like he was carefully working out a problem.

“Not exactly, well not –, “he paused mid-sentence. Then he averted his gaze from Rose and pretended to double-check their coordinates. She knew he was pretending only because she had seen him do it so many times before. He held his hand on a blue knob for a full minute, before shaking his head, and pressing a new set of controls; this time effectively setting quadrants.

There was a thump, and the TARDIS shook. Everyone grabbed onto something as the TARDIS was thrown left and right, everything rated as the Doctor frantically danced around the controls, until… silence.

“We’re here,” he said with a nostalgic air to his voice. “It’s been so very long since I was last on earth.”

He stared at the double doors for a moment, before jumping out, and running out of them, calling, “come on”, over his shoulder.

After following him out, the three humans could make out the strangest site. The Doctor was practically frolicking around in his long and jewel-encrusted robes, and funny shoes. He looked completely incongruous to the simple London playground they had landed in.

Rose recognized it; it was one they had landed in before. When the Doctor was trying to trap one of the ghosts later dubbed Cybermen.

The Doctor jumped onto a vacated swing and began to rock back and forth, a look of childish delight on his face.

The playground was almost completely empty, even though it was a nice day out. Although judging by the dimming light, they landed around late evening.

Rose took it all in. she knew it would be a while until she saw the Earth again. Felt this sun on her face, saw green grass. She also knew it would be a while until the Doctor was able to be so carefree until she would see her mother, see Jack, and see her father.

She turned reluctantly away from the Doctor’s antics and addressed her Mother. The person who always stood by her no matter what, the woman who was the bravest and strongest person she had ever known.

She wanted to say something to this effect, but her throat choked up, and she ran into her mother’s arms.

Jackie seemed to sense Rose’s unspoken words and she hugged her back, just as vehemently.

“I know, I’ll miss ya too, and just know t’at I will be ‘t’inking of you every single day.”

Rose pulled away, fighting off the burning behind her eyes.

“Promise me some’it?”

“Anything!”

“Promise me that if you’re ever unhappy-“

“Mum,” she interrupted; wishing her mother wouldn’t bring this up now.

“No really, please, if you're ever un’appy, just promise t’at you will remember t’at you always ‘ave someone to come back to ‘ere, you’ll always have a ‘ome ‘ere, okay?"

Rose nodded, throat tight again. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

She hugged her again. “I love you Mum, and I promise I will come visit as much as I can, with and without the Doctor.”

“Good, you bet’er!” Jackie reprimanded. “An’ make sure ‘e eats some’it. Skin an bones ‘e still is!”

Rose made a sound that was a cross between a giggle and a hiccup.

They just stared fondly at each other until Jack cut in, ending the moment.

“I’m sorry, but can I have my goodbye to Rose now?”

Rose laughed, feeling heavy and slightly depressed, but somehow also ecstatic in knowing what she was leaving for, and comforted in knowing this wasn’t goodbye for good. There would be no more goodbyes for good. Not with the Doctor and time travel on her side.

“Yeah, I guess you can.”

Jack winked and gave her a quick hug. Then his face turned very serious and he stood at mock attention, giving her a salute.

“Until next time then,” he said simply.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Until then.”

The Doctor must have sensed it was getting time to leave as he chose that moment to appear behind Jack.

“Whew, I missed that. Rose, we are going to have to make regulatory trips to Earth in the future. It has been wayyyyy too long since I was here,” the Doctor exclaimed dramatically.

He leaned his back against the doors of the TARDIS, propping one leg up against it as well.

“Doctor,” Jack said with a nod.

“Jack.”

Jack grinned, “you know, if your ever in the mood-“

“I'm good Jack, I'm good.”

He shrugged, “just thought I’d offer, I mean, I know not now, but apparently one day in my future...”

The Doctor didn’t bite, and Jack laughed it off.

“But seriously Doc, don’t be such a stranger. Try to use all that royal influence to get a break once in a while and see us lowly humans out here.”

The Doctor put his leg down and stood up straighter. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. I already know for a fact that I’ll see you again many times in your future.”

“Ah-Ha! See, I knew it! Wait a sec… you do? When? I mean, when exactly…?”

“Spoilers,” the Doctor smirked knowingly.

“I had a feeling you’d say something like that,” Jack laughed. “Well then, until my future. It’s reassuring to at least know you won’t abandon me again.”

Jack’s tone was light but the Doctor’s was heavy in his reply. His voice got deeper and he went out of his way to look Jack directly in the eyes.

“Never.”

Jack looked grateful, and gave the Doctor an elaborate and overdramatic bow, before ending in a one-fingered salute in which the Doctor returned, albeit only slightly less dramatically.

“Alright then, Jackie, Jack, blimey it’s so weird to say your names together like that, anyway, we’ll be seeing you again soon I suppose. Sooner for you than for me, but there you have it.”

He turned back to Rose, wearing his famous thousand-watt smile. Rose Tyler, allons-y.

With a last wave, Rose and the Doctor walked back into the TARDIS.

Together again.

THE END!


End file.
